Naruto: A Different Beginning
by smithjohn2020
Summary: Kyuubi escaped! It was too late to stop the Shiki Fuujin. What happened next and how was really anybody’s guess. One thing was certain though, the sealing DID take place on Naruto, something extraterrestrial. Supervillains v Naruto. Naruto and Hinata.
1. A Tale of Two Worlds

**Naruto: A Different Beginning**

**By Smithjohn2020**

**Chapter 1: A Tale of Two Worlds**

This was an idea that I had been bottling up for a month. It kept on haunting me until I put it on paper. Anyway, enjoy.

**Summary:** Kyuubi escaped! It was too late to stop the Shiki Fuujin. What happened next and how was really anybody's guess. One thing was certain though, the sealing DID take place on Naruto, something extraterrestrial. Playful Super!Naruto x Hinata.

**This is NOT a crossover.** You won't find Naruto going out of space or any typical Superman villains like Lex Luther or the 3 Kryptonian criminals here. This is purely a Naruto fanfic, with a light sprinkle of Superman flavor.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Superman. They are owned by their respective owners. I make no profit writing this.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Inside the private room, Lara placed her son, Kal-El, into the spaceship made for just him, sized with some additional room for the infant's eventual growth while traveling to his destination – planet Earth of the Milky Way Galaxy.

This was the moment she was waiting for, an opportunity that she risked over damaging her relationship with her husband, and perhaps the only chance for any Kryptonian to survive this imminent disaster. Yet, she could not go through with it. She could not bear to give up her child, to send him to an unknown world and not be able to be there to protect him, to watch him grow up, and most importantly, to love him.

Just when her resolve waivered, she felt two strong hands holding her shoulders, comforting her, renewing her resolve to do what she felt she must. She asked him for reassurance, just like she had always done.

"Do you think he'll be alright?"

Her son would live – _must_ live. Even if she was to sacrifice the overwhelming odds of her husband succeeding in saving planet, the overwhelming odds of them seeing another day alive with their son by their side, for as long as fate would allow them to be together, she could not bear the thought of the slim chance that should he fail, her son would live no longer.

_No, but I need for us both to believe that he will be._

Jor-El, the first scientist to discover the eventual planet death for Krypton nearly ten years ago, had since then been heading Project Salvation – a last ditch effort to save their home planet from her impending doom. His wife, Lara, had been his support, his confidant, and his second-in-command.

Looking directly into his wife's eyes, Jor-El gave her a gentle hug as he reassured her the best way he could.

"We have equipped the spaceship with everything he'll need for the trip. In fact, I can see no safer place for him right now than to send him on his journey to Earth."

Probability and statistics disagreed with Jor-El's statement. The odds favored Krypton over Earth as the safer of the two for their son, but those numbers were not absolutely affirmative on the survival of Krypton. Jor-El had many times staked his life on the science and mathematics, on the inevitability of logic overpowering emotions. Though he had argued with his wife last night against sending him off, though he had always trusted his logic, tonight, he could not.

He could not restate the unequivocal conclusion of probability and statistics, only to stomach the sight of his wife crumbling before him. He could not shake the overwhelming "gut feeling" within himself that there was a _slim _possibility of failure in Project Salvation, no matter how minuscule and unremarkable his prediction had told him it was. If they were not to send Kal-El off now, they would not get another chance to do so later should their plans to save Krypton fail. He could not and would not extinguish his need for optimism – his own need to believe – in the capacity to love that was found among Earth's most advance life form, the Homo Sapiens. The eventual happiness of his son depended solely on earthlings' mysterious desire to love.

Pressing the necessary buttons to activate the spaceship pre-programmed to travel to Earth, they watched as it traveled up the escape shoot that led out into space.

…o.0.O.0.o…

(Konohagakure)

Moving as fast as his aged legs could carry him, the retired Hokage leapt from rooftop to rooftop toward the erupting pandemonium. In his arms was a newborn, the only heir to the Namikaze clan, one Namikaze Naruto.

_Please, let me make it in time. I can't let him go through with this._

The words _bloody chaos_ would not do justice to describe the encroaching scene before Sarutobi Hizuren. Blood and chaos were _everywhere_. Konoha nins had battled fiercely and valiantly, but their efforts were of no avail. Yet, no matter how bleak the outcome was, they did not flee. They stood by their Commander-In-Chief, willingly offering themselves. They were ordered to retreat to the Battle Stadium, and eventually complied under the threat of committing insubordination if they had not.

The fallen heroic ninjas, their maimed bodies and unrecognizable body parts were scattered _everywhere_. In the center of the bloody battlefield stood the retired Hokage's successor, the youngest and the bravest Hokage Konoha had ever known. Underneath him, his ever-present companion, the boss summon, Gamabunta. The Yondaime Namikaze Minato stared at his towering foe with indomitable determination written on the features of his face.

Charging chakra into his legs, he jumped high into the air, high above the monstrosity responsible for the utter devastation of his village, throwing his special three-pronged kunais and scattering them around the colossal entity. In midair, Minato flashed through a series of hand seals for his signature jutsu. After forming his other signature jutsu, a third-stage Rasengan, in his right hand, Minato disappeared, leaving a harsh yellow lightning in his wake.

_Minato …_

To the newly arrived spectator, the Yellow Flash was traveling so fast that he was barely visible. The only evidences of his presence were the yellow trail of light and the scattered mini chakra explosions where the Rasengan hit. Any normal enemy, or even a whole army of enemies, would be no match for the Yellow Flash of Konoha. But unfortunately what attacked Konoha that night was no normal opponent.

_How can a day, which began so beautifully, turn out so ugly?_

In Minato's opinion, this night could not have been a worse one for Konoha to be attacked. In the morning, he heard the good news that his long-past-due pregnant wife, Kushina, went into labor. The father-to-be took the day off to wait in the hospital for his son's birth.

But when the afternoon came around, his festive spirits dampened as his wife was still in labor and he was called back to the Hokage towers to hear the elders from the Village Astronomy Coalition reporting the large meteoroids approaching Earth would likely tore through the atmosphere and hit Konoha at night.

Minato had spent the rest of the day designing a seal to cast a chakra dome-barrier over the Battle Stadium and informing the clan heads and the villagers of the impending doom and his solution to save the village. The normally energetic Yondaime could only laugh at fate's twisted sense of humor as his now exhausted self, who began the day feeling he was the luckiest bastard alive, fought before the most powerful and destructive of all tailed beasts and a force of nature in its own rights, the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

_Ha! Damn you fate! You and your sick play at humor._

Once the Rasengan dissipated, the Yellow Flash stopped his attack. He really wished he had been able to complete the final stage of this technique. Who knew how this battle would turn out if he was able to hit the Kyuubi with an element-infused version? Looking at the Nine-tailed Fox, he became disheartened when he saw the Rasengan-inflicted wounds healed up before his eyes, leaving no indication of the damage he had inflicted.

At that moment, Gamabunta chimed in with his own attacks. He swung his weapon, intending to hack off one of the Kyuubi's nine tails. The Demon Fox moved its tails the last minute, and Gamabunta's weapon entered into the ground with a thundering earthquake as it continued to slice deeply, until its hilt met the ground. The opportune Fox whipped its tails against the overextended Toad Boss, and three of its nine tails made good on their attacks. Gamabunta jumped back to avoid the Kyuubi's attempts to further deepen his injuries.

Seeing the arrival of his predecessor, Sarutobi Hizuren, holding his newborn son in his arms, Minato dispatched a clone to keep the demon occupied while he began preparing the chakra-inflused ink. The decision he had to make – one of offering his son as a sacrificial lamb – would no doubt haunt him for the rest of his existence. He wished that he could seal the Kyuubi away into his own body, but sealing a bijuu into an adult was not possible, as the adult body would not be able to adapt its chakra coils to successfully contain the Demon.

With the speed and precision of a seal master, Minato finished drawing two seals around his son's naval. He then placed his hand on the two seals and infused them with chakra so they would be ready for the final process.

"Hakke no Fuuin Shiki and Shishou Fuuin." Eight Divination Signs Seal and Four Image Seal.

The double seals were necessary since the human medium through which the Shinigami-aided bijuu-sealing technique would not be enough to contain the whole summation of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The sealing process would separate the demon's essence into two opposites – Kyuubi's Yin and Yang. Shinigami would seal away the Yin with the soul of the spirit medium and seal away Kyuubi's Yang into Naruto.

Minato planned to offer his body, his soul, as the technique's human medium.

The seals drawn on Naruto's belly would contain the Kyuubi's Yang, slowly filter the bijuu chakra and integrate it into the host's own chakra coil, and allow the bijuu host to use the its chakra when his life came under distress, physically, as in threatened, or emotionally, especially when angered.

Once Minato finished infusing with chakra the seals he drew, he examined his son for the first time, and for what he mentally prepared to be the last, and smiled. His eyes drank in his son's appearance as his mind flooded him with mental images of what he believe his son would look like as a Genin, Chuunin, and Jounin. When his imaginary journey came to his son's wedding and coronation as the Hokage, a sad smile slowly formed on his face as a tear drop rolled down his right cheek. Those would be the precious memories he would miss. What he had imagined just then would have to serve as the precious memories he would end up parting with.

Suddenly he became the recipient of a disabling blow in the back from his predecessor's clone, Minato turned his shocked and regretful face to look at the saddened face of the Sandaime's clone …

_Sarutobi, no, don't! _

… before blacking out.

"Sorry Minato, you have a newborn and a wife to look after and many more years of living to do. Plus, this village needs you as her Yondaime. I have lived a good life. My time has come."

Hizuren made the infamous cross hand seal and made another Kage Bunshin. The one that knocked down Minato carried him and shunshinned to the Battle Stadium. The other held the Namikaze newborn before his true self, who, at the moment, was trying as fast as his arthritis hands could move to call upon the Shinigami.

_I'm sorry, Naruto._

Snake – Boar – Ram – Rabbit – Dog – Rat – Bird …

Before the last two hand seals could be completed, the Sandaime and his bunshin jumped away from each other as they avoided a crushing strike of one of the Demon Fox's tails.

_Apparently Minato's clone dissipated when my clone knocked him out. _

Just when the Kyuubi thought it could take another free shot at Sarutobi – this shot would have been dead on – Gamabunta finally pulled his weapon out of the ground and swung at the nine-tailed bijuu.

The Demon Fox altered its attack slightly to dodge Gamabunta and ended up missing its target, but the purpose of the strike was accomplished.

Snake – Boar – Ram – Rabbit – Dog …

Repeating the hand sequence for the same bijuu-sealing technique, the Sandaime found himself disrupted again by the Kyuubi, who seemed to have caught on to the importance of stopping the Shiki Fuujin from its completion.

_I guess the myths about your intelligence were correct._

Looking over to the Boss Toad, Hizuren was trying to catch his breath as he pleaded for assistance.

"Gamabunta, would you stay and help me, or do you have to go since your summoner has left?"

"I will stay and protect Konoha for Minato and Jiraiya, but my chakra is running low … so whatever you are planning, do it quickly if you want my help."

Though slightly out of breath, the Professor was still a formidable warrior and one of the most powerful shinobis alive, advancing age notwithstanding. Running out of options as he dodged the ferocious attacks of an adamant bijuu, Sarutobi temporarily abandoned the thought of finishing the required long sequence of hand seals in favor of returning a few attacks of his own. He jumped on Minato's summon, ran to the top of its head, and shouted defiantly at the Demon Fox.

"Fine, two can play this game. I'm not going to be a sitting duck anymore. Demon, meet the 'god of the shinobi.'"

As he finished his last verbiage to the nine-tailed bjiuu, Sarutobi completed a much shorter sequence of hand seals for his Earth attack.

"Doton: Yomi Numa." Earth Element: Swamp of the Underworld.

The ground upon which the Kyuubi stood transformed into a river of mud. Of course, the jutsu was not enough to completely sink the Nine-tailed Demon, but it did cause the gargantuan Fox slight difficulty moving.

Not wanting to give the Fox any room for a breather, the former Hokage finished another set of hand seals.

"Suiton: Gufuu Suika." Water Element: Typhoon Water Vortex.

The Gufuu Suika was not Sarutobi's strongest attack as it did not play off his elemental affinities, namely earth and fire. However, fire attacks were not the choicest attacks against a nine-story bijuu shrouded with red flaming chakra. He was unsure about how effective any earth jutsus would be against the Kyuubi, so he refrained from using them for now. Water element attacks, especially if they were strengthened with the destructive powers of wind, were the only attacks he was confident enough about their effectiveness against this beast of the legends.

_I wish my sensei, the Shodaime, was here. We could use the bijuu-suppressing powers of his Mokuton right now._

Nothing happened …

Well, not exactly nothing …

Sarutobi's jutsu combination attacks DID connect with the nine-tailed mythological beast, tearing a hole in its belly, but the mythology surrounding this fearsome legendary monster was not all unfounded. Its booming voice mocked the retired Kage's weak attempt of an attack.

"Hahaha, hehehe! Stop. You are killing me. Are you trying to tickle me to death?"

As he heard this, Sarutobi noticed that the hole that Gufuu Suika had torn was healing ... slowly disappearing ... barely noticeable ... and then completely gone.

_Shimatta! No wonder Minato looked like hell when I got here, and Kyuubi was not even wounded._

Biting his thumb and making the necessary hand seals, he summoned Enma the Monkey King.

…o.0.O.0.o…

(Outer Space)

The spaceship traversed through the sparsely-filled vacuum that was the universe towards its destination, the jewel of space, Earth. The unusually dense spaceship generated enough gravitational pull to attract tiny random particles to itself in its journey. As the tiny particles attached themselves to the spaceship, compressing to form a rock-like exterior encasing it, the spaceship grew in size and density, generating an even stronger gravitational field that attracts an even greater amount of space particles, perpetuating its continual increase in mass and density.

This phenomenon was not by chance. Jor-El knew that the Earth's atmosphere was substantially denser than Krypton's, allowing it to better shield Earth from meteoroids. Most of those that were close enough to become meteors lacked in mass and density and skid off the atmosphere, back into space. Of the few that were dense enough to enter the Earth's atmosphere, most disintegrated into nothing under the heat of the friction against the atmosphere's concentrated air molecules. Only those with a suitable mass which entered the atmosphere at the correct angle could become meteorites and make it all the way to impact noticeably on Earth's surface.

To remedy this so that his son's spaceship would not ricochet off the Earth's atmosphere or become destroyed by it, Jor-El made it extremely dense, using the metal from Krypton's core, so it would perpetuate its own mass gain and form its own shield for entry.

Traveling at ten times the speed of light, the program-navigated spaceship zipped through space. Jor-El's calculations were ungodly accurate. The trajectory of the drifting galaxies, the orbits of the planets, stars, moons, and other celestial bodies … everything was just as Jor-El had calculated it to be.

The spaceship, now significantly encased in the compressed dust particles it had collected during its travel, had just entered the Milky Way Galaxy. Soon, it ripped through the Orion Clouds on the outskirt of Earth's solar system, pulling four meteoroids in tow, all of which were accompanying the rock-mass-encased spaceship.

In a mere few minutes, the spaceship, along with the four meteoroids, would enter the Earth's atmosphere.

…o.0.O.0.o…

(Konohagakure)

In the stadium gathered the anxious villagers, unsure of what to expect next.

They too were caught in the same whirlwind of emotions as their Hokage was. At first they had planned an elaborate celebration to welcome the birth of the son of their beloved leader and his wife. Everyone had been happy for the young couple when they got married last year, the year of Minato's inauguration as the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha. The double celebrations brought quite a boost to Konoha's economy as they brought in attendance of many foreign and wealthy dignitaries.

Then, they heard their Kage's grim announcement of the imminent doom that was the impeding meteor collisions. Their mood for festivity disappeared as they prepared for what could be the end of their existence as they had known it or that of their beloved village. Many good-byes were said, apologies exchanged, broken relationships mended, frail ones strengthened. Families, whose members were not close, bonded. Families, whose were, got closer.

When the village council planned the evacuation, the Inuzuka Clan Head Tsume announced she was going to adopt some children from the orphanage, saying something about taking care of the strayed. The rest of the clan heads looked at each other and thought it was a good idea to give the children a feel of home and family, even if it would turn out to be their last and only happiness.

What surprised the more reluctant clans was not that the newly adopted children would be happy, but the overall happiness in having these new additions brought to their own clan, to their children, and to themselves. In the end, even the more stoic clans, the Uchihas, Hyuugas, and Aburames, concluded that should Konoha survive this day, they each would join the Inuzuka in taking turns adopting any children needing a family so no longer would Konoha have the need for an orphanage.

After making all the preparations, or as much as they could think of doing, ninja and civilians alike took to the only two things they knew that could the message of doom more palatable.

Sake and sex.

Lots of booze and love-making or lust-making fun.

All in the privacy of their homes, of course.

Those who had mates consummated their relationship again without worrying about any consequences of their ecstasy. Those who had crushes got together with them and explored together the ultimate expression of love without experiencing rejection. Those who were lonely chose to be no longer and gave themselves to whomever that happened to be nearby.

Even Tsunade gave in to Jiraiya's persistence. When it really counted, Jiraiya wanted no one but Tsunade next to him. Though, she would never admit to it, but since Dan died, there was only one person she would ever consider romantically involvement with again, and that person was Jiraiya. That day she stopped denying Jiraiya or herself and experienced ecstasy with a man again.

If Konoha was not to survive this day of reckoning, then the consequences would not have mattered. If Konoha did survive, then the consequences be damned. Konoha would need to be repopulated anyway. Those who had crushes or were lonely should be best paired off and married, regardless.

Either outcome, no harm done.

The villagers were somewhat relieved by the survival plan their Yondaime had come up for them, namely the make-shift bomb shelter that was the Battle Stadium.

The expansive Chakra Dome required a lot of chakra to maintain. Even with all the Jounins in the village working together, it could only be maintained for twenty minutes, barely enough time to outlast the meteor blasts, the debris, and powerful aftershocks that would follow it.

However, they were completely unprepared for the unexpected attack of the Kyuubi.

Against the overwhelming odds, the Chakra Dome was Minato's only ace against the meteorites and the Kyuubi. That and calling on the Shinigami to seal away the bijuu. He only wished that his predecessor would not have to resort to using the forbidden sealing jutsu and could hold against the Kyuubi until the meteorites hit Konoha, then shinshun himself into the stadium right before the dome was activated. Hopefully the meteorite blast would result in killing the Nine-Tails, and the Chakra Dome would outlast the ensuing waves of aftershock.

That was the original plan anyway.

However, Minato was realistic and knew that no man or army could delay the bjiuu. It would have been easier to seal away the Kyuubi when an opportunity presented itself than to continue delaying it until the meteorites struck.

_Do what you need to, Old Man._

Using his son as a jinchuuriki candidate had been a hard decision for Minato to make, but he felt, in the end, it was the right decision. For one, and the only logistical reason, Naruto was the only newborn this night. Secondly, even if his son was not the only newborn available, the Yondaime could not bear asking it of another family, if he was not willing to make the sacrifice of his child himself. Finally, and perhaps the most important one to Minato's immediate well being, his wife, Kushina, had not yet awaken from her delivery exhaustion. She was currently recovering in the stadium's make-shift tent of a clinic.

_Oh Kami, I'm so dead when Shina-chan finds out about that I went ahead with my plan._

Kushina had been a brave and powerful kunoichi, one capable of decimating a whole brigade of enemy ninjas all by herself. Now, her fate hung on the balance of fate. Up to the last breath of her consciousness, she openly denied her husband access to her child, her firstborn, to be used as a sacrificial lamb, but silently she debated within herself the merits of her husband's argument.

True, Kyuubi was a force of nature, unstoppable by mere mortal means, and could only be combated by calling on the gods themselves. And yes, her child was the only one born of that fateful night. But the most resounding No was that THIS WAS HER CHILD. None of anything else mattered. Not the Kyuubi. Not the village she was not born into, but had considered it her home. Not her husband whom she dearly loved. Not the moral blurriness of sacrificing one for the greater good of many.

But in the end, she fell unconscious, perhaps she knew subconsciously what needed to be done and was giving Minato a way to carry it out without her knowledge of it, without the sufficating presence of guilt in her heart.

Even with her unconscious, Minato could still hear her arguments. He would not doubt Tsunade were she to tell him that Kushina was still arguing even in her comatose state. He knew his wife deeply wanted to do what was right. Were he not to sacrifice Naruto to seal away the Nine-Tails, no one in Konoha, not even their son, her baby, would survive its impending threat.

A sudden spike of a familiar chakra signature disrupted his thoughts. Turning his head toward where Sarutobi's chakra was, Minato's eyes caught his sensei Jiraiya doing the same. Both Minato and Jiraiya shared the same thoughts. Looking at each other, their lips moved in synch.

"I should have been the one out there."

It was too late to switch places now. Their fates had been sealed. What was going to happen would happen.

Looking into the sky and seeing the telltale sign of the incoming meteorites, Minato and Jiraiya quickly directed all the Jounins assigned to the Dome Barrier Project to get into position. They could only hope that if the Old Man was going to get here, he would do so soon. Once the chakra dome was activated, everyone would be putting their all into maintaining it. Nothing and no one would be able to enter the stadium when the jutsu was activated. Furthermore, they would be too exhausted to de-activate and re-activate it for him to enter. To do so would endanger the safety of the entire village, something Minato as the Fourth Hokage would not do.

_Please be okay, Old Man._

…o.0.O.0.o…

Dodging another chakra blast from his Goliath-like foe, the Sarutobi clone finished his hand seals for an earth jutsu. Gamabunta and Enma had run out of chakra and returned to their summon world.

"Doton: Chakra Mokusatsu." Earth Element: Chakra Smothering.

A wall of cycling mud erupted from the ground around which the Kyuubi's four paws stood, grabbing on to the legs of the Nine-Tails. Slowly the cylindrical wall of flowing mud spun around the contour of its limbs and rose higher and higher.

One story … two stories … three stories …

Wherever the mud wall rose to, the gargantuan fox could feel its chakra depleting. Alas, the technique did not envelop the Demon Fox fast enough. As soon as the bijuu caught on to how the technique was supposed to work, it sent a blast of its fiery chakra down its limbs, effectively stopping its ascension and slowly pushing down the mud walls..

Had the Professor been in his prime and had it not been his clone performing the jutsu, the technique might have had a fighting chance against the Nine-Tails. The mud wall would have definitely risen higher, faster, and smothered the chakra out of his opponent more effectively.

However, there was a reason why the Professor resorted to using his clone for the technique, knowing full well that it did not have the necessary chakra supply for such a chakra-demanding technique.

Snake – Boar – Ram – Rabbit – Dog – Rat – Bird – Horse – Snake.

Completely unaware of the fire-trails blazing across the sky and completely unaware that he had succeeded in delaying the monstrosity of a bjiuu until the incoming cosmic strikes, the exhausted Sandaime finished the long series of hand seals and whispered as he donned on a victorious smirk.

"Shiki Fuujin, complete."

Behind him, the features of the Death God appeared, holding a spectral form of Sarutobi in custody.

Greeted by the Shinigami's ghastly visage, the strongest of all tailed beasts cowered, showed its first sign of fear since its last rebirth. It tried to step back, pulled on its legs without success. It could not get away from its puny human of an opponent and the microscopic newborn directly in front of the caster of the forbidden sacrificial jutsu.

Hizuren's last Earth Element jutsu had accomplished its most important purpose – it held the bijuu in place for the sealing technique. Kyuubi was rendered relatively immobile for the next few minutes, which was more than enough for the job.

Kyuubi's fate seemed a foregone conclusion.

Speaking in a tongue not comprehensible to humans, the Shinigami directed his greetings to the scared bijuu.

"Hehehe! We meet again, Kyuubi. Is that fear I see in your eyes? Let me return you to my belly again."

As he said this, he reached his arms through Hizuren's spectral body, extending them from the chest of the jutsu-castor's real body, attempting to grab the soul of the Nine-tailed Kitsune.

Watching the Death God reached out of his chest to grab the Kyuubi's soul, completely confident of his imminent victory over the bijuu, Sarutobi's smirk turned into disbelief at the bad timing of things.

BOOM! The meteorites hit.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Those who were under the protective shield of the Chakra Dome could only wonder what was happening outside the Battle Stadium. They had seen the incoming meteors ripping through the sky, leaving trails of flames in their wake. They felt the Stadium shook with the initial crashes of the meteorites

With the Chakra Dome already activated and the obvious absence of the retired Sandaime, Minato and Jiraiya struggled to keep their focus on the task at hand, keeping at bay guilt and grief. They continued to pour chakra into the barrier jutsu, riding out the waves of aftershock from the meteorite strikes.

…o.0.O.0.o…

All of Hizuren's efforts wasted.

It was too late to stop the Shiki Fuujin. Shinigami was called forth, and Shinigami would not be denied.

What happened next and _how_ was really anybody's guess. What people later discovered happened was that the meteorite with the spaceship encased within was the one that hit not too far away from the Sandaime and the Kyuubi during the sealing. The shockwave freed the Kyuubi from Hizuren's binding jutsu; it leapt away to safety and had not returned to bother Konoha or any other hidden village.

Sarutobi Hizuren, a legend among the Shinobi giants, was no more. His sacrifice was later deemed unnecessarily tragic. In the end, it did not matter – the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had escaped.

One thing was certain though, one irrefutable fact. The sealing _did_ take place on the Namikaze child. Instead of the Kyuubi being sealed, it was the life of another child that was sealed into Naruto, one to whom the spaceship belonged – Kal-El.

The four other meteorites also struck. They individually scattered into Iwa, Kumo, Suna, and Oto.

The spaceship however was no where to be found. What was left was an imprint of one on the meteorite that encased it. The Yondaime suspected someone linked to the Kyuubi attack was responsible for its disappearance.

What lay in the horizon was anyone's guess.

…o.0.O.0.o…

**A/N:** My thanks to weixuan18 for looking over the first version, Mari Falcon and SkyMaiden for their support and encouragement, and Amael the Chosen for beta'ing the final version of this chapter for me.

I want to turn this into another epic of mine, but I'm not sure until I get some feedback from you. If there's enough demand, I'll continue to post updates. I will always finish my stories though, it's just _how soon I'll post_ that's the issue in question.

If you haven't had a chance to check out my other story, my first actually, please do so. It's entitled, **Naruto: Swordsman of 9 Lonesome Stances**. I also have a C2 up as well, **Naruto stories that are worth reading**. Both can be found on my profile page.

This chapter is named after Charles Dickens's _A Tale of Two Cities. _Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think.


	2. The Portrait of Namikaze Minato

**Naruto: A Different Beginning  
**

**By Smithjohn2020**

**Chapter 2: The Portrait of Namikaze Minato**

**A/N:** Those who also read my other story, **Naruto: Swordsman of 9 Lonesome Stances**, are already aware of my recent loss of a family member. Gramps passed away last month, a few hours after I posted Chapter 7 of my other story. This chapter is dedicated to him. Rest in peace, Old Man.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything but the words typed here and the original ideas they convey. I make no profit writing this.

…o.0.O.0.o…

**Last Chapter: ** Jor-El and his wife Lara sent their baby boy to Earth in a spaceship while they remained behind to see if they could save Krypton. While Minato battled the Kyuubi, Sarutobi brought Naruto for the sealing and knocked out Minato and sent him to the safety of the Battle Stadium. The Nine Tails thwarted many of the Sandaime's attempts to complete the sealing jutsu, but Sarutobi eventually succeeded, though by then, the meteorites struck Konoha, Iwa, Kumo, Suna, and the land that would become Oto. Kyuubi escaped, and Kal-El got sealed in Naruto instead. The spaceship went missing.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Minato's first year as the Hokage was a breeze, compared to how he had it since the death of Sandaime five years ago. Sarutobi was not only his mentor, but he was also a very dear friend, a confidant, and someone whom he had gone to anytime about anything.

To have lost Sarutobi so early in Minato's appointment to office made it even harder to get over his grief. Everyday that he served his term in office was as a painful reminder of that tragic sacrifice of the sealing technique. That pain was even more acute when he encountered difficult or unfamiliar cases and wished that his predecessor was there to assist like he had been before.

Currently the young man with the untamable, spiky strawberry-blond hair stood in front of the opening behind his office, looking over the village he was charged to protect with his life.

_It should have been me sealed away in Shinigami, not you, Old Man._

Sometimes the grief was so overwhelming that he felt guilty enjoying the simple pleasures of life, such as eating his favorite ramen at Ichiraku's or holding Naruto's hand when they go for a walk in the park.

So, to keep his mind off thinking about the "what-ifs," he buried himself in work.

Which was not difficult to do, especially when Jiraiya's spy network kept reporting strange activities in areas near the meteorite crash sites that were located in four other countries.

Those reports ranged from odd but plausible to stranger than fiction.

Minato usually sent two teams to investigate each incident; sometimes if the reports sounded really odd, he would go with the investigative teams to see for himself.

In Earth Country, where Konoha was still considered Enemy Number One, the investigative teams were able to confirm the reports of rock giant sightings – moving giants made completely of rock wreaking havoc in small villages near Iwa. Minato went along just in case Iwa chose not to honor the peace agreement and turned violent against the leaf-nins. According to the locals, these stone-giants could be appeased only by offering a firstborn child as sacrifice. Once the firstborn had been offered, the rock giants would remain dormant for six months.

In Suna, another investigative team, this one headed by Kakashi, confirmed that a small fragment of the meteorite was purposefully sealed in the oldest of the Kazekage's children – his daughter. So far nothing remarkable was observed in her. However, while he was in Suna, the Copy-nin overheard that another of the Kazekage's children received a sealing of another type, though he did not hear what was sealed, or in which of the remaining children.

Meanwhile, the reports from two other meteorite crash sites were conflicting and had yet to be verified.

Yesterday, he was about to volunteer himself again, but Jiraiya his mentor volunteered to go in his stead.

He remembered their conversation in his office.

"_Minato, you need to stay more in the village. Konoha needs her leader, Kushina needs her husband, and Naruto needs his father."_

"_But Jiraiya-sensei, I…."_

"_I know you're still feeling guilty for what happened. Remember, the Old Man knew what he was doing when he made that sacrifice. He did it so that Konoha could have a youthful and capable leader, so that Kushina and Naruto could have their husband and father, and so that you could reach your full potential because there's still so much for you to accomplish. Don't make his sacrifice meaningless."_

"_But…."_

"_Minato, no more BUTs. This has gone on long enough! If you don't listen to me, if I see that you disrespect my sensei's sacrifice again like how you've been doing, I will personally beat some sense into you, Hokage or not … and don't think that I can't do it either."_

After Jiraiya left his office yesterday, he decided that carrying on the legacy of Sarutobi and of the others that died during the Kyuubi Attack would now become his raison d'êtres.

He learned that locking himself behind the door of grief or burying himself in busy work away from those still living did not bring honor to the dead or to the legacy they had left behind. The dead died not for their survivors to suffer, but for them to live, to celebrate their shared memories, and to carry on their legacy.

Even as the Hokage, Minato was still learning from his sensei. Jiraiya had essentially showed him what it meant to cherish the memories of the dead.

A soft smile appeared on Minato's face as he finished reminiscing about that meeting.

"Hokage-sama."

Minato had long sensed the newcomer's entry, but chose to enjoy his rare moment of peace in lieu of acknowledging the new presence. Now that he was addressed, he had no choice but to turn around to the familiar voice coming behind him.

He wished that this impromptu meeting would be short since he had planned to take the rest of the day off to spend time at home.

"Kakashi, have you finally taken my advice to ask Rin out and are here to accept my offer to chaperone?"

Minato's attempt to get a reaction out of his former student failed.

Hatake Kakashi was one of Minato's students and one of his most trusted men. He was given the mission to spy on the Uchihas. It was a mission where his loyalty to Konoha must be absolute.

Ever since the death of Obito, the silver-haired ANBU developed an even more serious nature than the one he had before. He distanced himself from the surviving members of his team – his sensei Minato and his other teammate Rin, one who made known her feelings for him.

The death of Obito had also scarred Rin deeply. Since then, she retired from active duty and went on the reserves. Currently she worked as one of the lead medic-nins at the Konoha Hospital.

Once Minato made eye contact, Kakashi bowed and continued.

"Hokage-sama, mission accomplished."

_Not 'Minato-sensei' or 'Minato-sama,' but the cold and distant 'Hokage-sama.'_

Kakashi became even more stoic after he got appointed as the ANBU captain.

_Have I really been blinded by my own grieving that I was this neglectful and oblivious to the needs of my subordinates?_

The strawberry-blond retreated into the commander's chair behind his desk as if he was shielding himself from the evidence of guilt as exemplified by the emotionless foot soldier before him. Behind the security of his desk, he waited for the rest of the Kakashi's report.

"It's just as the Sandaime suspected. The Uchihas have been planning a coup to overthrow the Konoha Council, and there seems to be someone in the background they answer to."

Since his predecessor's death, Minato revised ANBU captain's mission to not only spy on the Uchihas, but also to steal the scrolls on clan history, which would include the origin of the Sharingan, and on the various doujutsus of the Sharingan.

The mission itself had always been on-going since Kakashi's appointment. Sometimes Minato received a weekly report from him, and other times he had to wait months before Kakashi made contact. Just like the one they were conducting now, every meeting they had regarding the Uchihas had been secretive, protected behind a triple privacy barrier.

Though he was eager to learn about the content of those scrolls, Minato did not let his eagerness show. There was a more pressing matter that must be addressed first – something very disturbing that his subordinate just reported.

"I see. How did you find out that there was another person, perhaps a mastermind, behind the Uchiha's yet-to-be-carried-out betrayal?"

What happened next was one of those few moments where Kakashi put away his Icha-Icha book. This action alerted Minato to become more attentive than usual. Normally he would have made a light joke about Kakashi and his porn addiction, but he let the rare opportunity pass because of the seriousness of the subject at hand.

"I'm sorry to inform you that this information did not come about without a price."

Minato leaned forward on his desk and, with a hand, motioned his former student to continue.

"I found a note in Fugaku's study room that linked him to someone in Kiri."

"Fugaku, as in Uchiha Fugaku, the father of the young and promising Itachi?"

Kakashi nodded. He could hear the disbelief in his leader's voice. Fugaku was someone Minato regarded highly and had not suspected him to be a part of this conspiracy. Evidently this treason ran deeper than they originally realized.

"How is he connected to the Hidden Village of the Mist? What does the note say exactly?"

The Copy-nin could tell that his commander wanted a word-for-word recounting of its content, which was simple to do since reciting from memory was one of the basic skills taught to all ANBU recruits.

"It's too early to tell what, if any, connection could be established between him and Kiri. The note did not say whom it was addressed to or offer any help in this. It simply said, 'Mizukage has been installed.'"

Minato sat there with his chin resting on his left hand pondering over his subordinate's revelation.

_Mizukage has been installed. Why … why would anyone care?_

Minato was chosen as Sarutobi's successor for more than his leadership skills and combat prowess. He was also chosen because he has also one of the, if not the, most brilliant minds in Konoha.

_Unless … unless the Uchihas' treason is only a part of a greater scheme of things. Could someone in Kiri be the mastermind behind all of this … whatever they are trying to accomplish? Then that means …._

"Kakashi, well done. You have just saved Konoha from a civil war and possibly averted our world from another Great Shinobi War."

Kakashi's lone visible eyebrow was clearly raised.

"Actually, I think my mistake might have cost Konoha's peace."

Those words reminded Minato what he had wanted to ask earlier.

"So what went wrong during the mission?"

"As I was taking my leave with the scrolls, I chanced upon that note in Fugaku's study room. I committed it to memory, but a seal was placed on it to cause it to self-destruct upon reading. It poofed into a cloud of smoke. Evidently no one else had seen it before me, and now, no one else will. Such an important note gone missing will not go unnoticed for long."

_Why this? Why now?_

Today was the one day that Minato wanted to take the afternoon off, and Fate had to dump a major headache into his lap.

"Don't beat yourself up over this. You had no idea that the note was self-destructive. Besides, the writer taking the extra precaution means that it was likely that the note was genuine and contained a bona fide message, which means that we are in a better position to prepare for what's to come than we would be had it not been for your accidental discovery. Plus nothing can be done to remedy it now."

Kakashi was still too occupied, worrying about what would happen next, than to resume reading his porn.

"So, what's next?"

"What's important now is for us to prepare for the worst case scenario. To do so, I need Tsunade and Jiraiya to return to the village as soon as possible. I'm assigning you one week to find Jiraiya and bring back from him whatever reports he compiled from his spy network. You are also to relay to him the mission to find Tsunade and her back to Konoha. Tell my sensei that he has a two-week deadline to complete his mission."

"Hai!"

"Dismissed."

…o.0.O.0.o…

Whoever said "children are an inheritance from Kami" was an idiot.

That, or the person had obviously never met a child like Naruto.

At the moment, "children are a curse from the Devil" was more apt to describe the sentiments of the Namikazes.

A distressed voice came from the upstairs bathroom added to Minato's predicament of feeling extremely overwhelmed. This was even more so when compounded by his already long and intensive morning.

"Mina-kun!"

After letting out a heavy sigh, he reluctantly answered to his wife's cry for help.

"I'm coming up, Shina-chan."

_Unbelievable. Two Kage-level ninjas worn down by a five-year-old, and it's only noon._

Climbing up the spiraling stairs, he saw the scene that made his wife, a generally collected and autonomous person, cried out for help.

On the wall of the hallway that led from the bedrooms came Naruto running to his father with a hand holding onto his soiled bed sheet, dragging it on the wall, while making the most innocent of giggles and laughter.

A simple Suiton jutsu should be able to remove the brownish smear that resulted from the menacing child's trajectory, but what to do with a rambunctious kid was another matter.

Hitting him would have been the easy way to vent the two grownups of their frustration, but doing so would never teach their son to listen out of love and understanding. However, reasoning with their hyperactive child was easier said than done.

Minato had read in some parenting books that a child acting up was a child seeking attention.

_Have I been neglecting spending time with my son and my wife this badly?_

Hiding his inner musings with a big smile, he bent down, caught the running child, and picked him up.

"Naruto, what do you say that Dad spend the rest of the day with you?"

The five-year-old boy was unsure how to react. He had never been given this offer before. Unknowingly, his mouth hanged open, and his whole face frozen in his mischievous expression when he heard his father's words. Naruto remained motionless for a while, perhaps fearing that if he were to speak, he would be awaken from this dream-like scenario, that of his father spending the day with him.

Finally, the spiky-haired Kage saw life returned to his son's dazed eyes and the shocked face softened into a smile.

"Dad, do you mean it?"

Minato could see that Naruto really wanted him to stay, but his voice carried a tone of doubt, which saddened the young father greatly, though he chose not to let his face show it.

With the same unchanged smile, albeit forced this time, he tried his best reassure his son as he shot a quick glance to his wife who was standing not too far from them.

_She looked exhausted._

"Of course, but first, I want you to apologize to your mother for causing her all this trouble."

"But Dad, …."

One thing that Minato and Kushina did when they had time to spend together after a long day was to share how their day went. Minato's recount had always been a generic variation of "it was busy" or of some other non-classified mundane village requests. Kushina's, on the other hand, would be filled with vivid play-by-play of things Naruto did. Hers was mostly about Naruto, rarely anything about herself.

Deep down, the busy husband had always been envious of how much time his wife was able to spend with their son. Kushina knew what prevented Minato from doing so was his inability to let go of his guilt over Sarutobi's death. Therefore, she made extra effort to remember every little detail about Naruto so that she could share it with her husband, making it felt like he had been there with them.

From what his wife had told him, Minato knew of certain traits developing in Naruto that he did not like. But there was little to nothing he could do about it when he was unhealthily grieving for his predecessor's death, purposely denying himself of what Sarutobi had lost – his family.

However, after yesterday, after Jiraiya's conversation, things were about to change.

The first undesirable trait of Naruto – his untruthful tongue – was about to be addressed.

"Naruto, what comes out next from your mouth better not be a lie. We Namikazes will not have a liar in our midst."

His father's stern voice stopped him from making up an excuse for his behavior. With his lenient mother, he was able to get away with almost everything. He would make a mess; she would clean it up. He would cry and fuss; she would make ramen for him. It had been a game to him, a sort of fun chaos, where he was the master conductor in midst of it all.

Since his father had not been there for him the past five years, this sternness, this seriousness was new.

Still, which five-year-old listened the first time?

"Dad, I really …"

With a swift shuffling of her feet, Kushina got to her son and covered his mouth in time.

Her husband was in love with more than just her looks and her brain. She was a formidable Kunoichi in her own right.

"Naru-chan, don't you dare test your father."

At hearing his mother's soft words with unequivocal meaning, his eyes swelled with tears of remorse. He turned around and hugged his mother and uttered a mumbled, but sincere apology as tears flowed freely from his eyes.

"I'm sorry … I'm sorry."

He had only wanted their attention.

Now that he got it, he could not bear to hurt them anymore.

Minato's arms wrapped around them both, sandwiching Naruto from behind. His heart was moved with pride and joy by the scene before him. At the same time, his conscience guilted him into making his own apology. Though he addressed it to his son, it was really meant for his wife.

"Naruto, I'm sorry too. From now on, I'm not going to bury myself in my duties as the Hokage anymore. We'll be spending more time together as a family."

Kushina put a squeeze into her hug to let Minato know that she accepted his apology. She too addressed her words to Minato through Naruto.

"Naru-chan, that's okay. Mommy loves you; she always will."

Though Minato was happy for this touching moment, there was a lot he wanted to do with Naruto today that he never had taken the opportunity to. He slowly let go of his embrace.

"Alright, Naruto. Before we play together, let's help Mom clean up the mess you've made on the wall, okay? Go get a towel from the bathroom while I wash the smear on the wall off with a Suiton jutsu."

While Minato gave the assignment to his son, his hands made three hand seals for a D-ranked water technique.

"Suiton: Ryuusui no Jutsu." Water Release: Running Water Technique.

Out of his mouth came a small gush of water aimed at the smear. Normally, Suiton jutsus drew water from the atmosphere or from a collection of water elsewhere, but using those more powerful jutsus would have been an overkill for the simple task at hand.

Instead of doing as he was told, Naruto remained by his father's side and paid attention to the hand seals his father made. Feeling confident, having just received both of his parents love and reassurance, he wanted to try his hand at what his father was doing. Like all the children in the village, he too hero-worshipped the Yondaime. It just so happened that the Yondaime was his father.

Naruto's hands moved slowly and carefully as he duplicated his father's hand seals.

Kushina stood by the side and watched her son with fascination. Though her husband's hands moved at light-blink speed, the young child was still able to follow them.

It had always amazed Kushina how her son had such keen eyesight and superb hand dexterity. Starting at a very young age, she noticed how developed the boy was in hand-eye coordination. A little after he turned six-month old, Naruto was able to use a spoon and a fork to self-feed. Once her son turned two, he was able to dress himself – buttons, zippers, and all.

As far back as Naruto could remember, whenever he focused his attention on something, things would appeared to move in slow motion. In the case of his father and the three hand seals, Naruto's eyes took in everything down to the minutest of details, from the number of wrinkles on his father's hands to the lengths of nails on his fingers.

Her son's Suiton jutsu came out just like her husbands … at least that was what Kushina thought at first. However, she soon saw that the water resulting from Naruto's execution freezing the wall and the water from Minato's upon contact. A spectacular-looking water sculpture resulted.

"Naru-chan!?"

Kushina had always chalked it up to 'Naruto was just an exceptional child,' but what Naruto just did was beyond exceptional, so much so that it could only be classified as alarming and unnatural.

Minato, too, turned his head towards Naruto, shock clearly displaying on his face.

What shocked the Namikaze parents was not that their five-year-old son was able to mold chakra, copy hand seals perfectly, and successfully executed a technique, all on his first attempt. What shocked them was the fact that despite their son's flawless execution, his water spout froze.

What worried them was WHY. At the moment, both of the adults were trying their best to conceal their worries.

They had always been on the watch for something abnormal since they discovered a completed Death God seal on their son's navel after finding him next to Sarutobi's lifeless body. This was the first time they noticed something decidedly abnormal about their son. Sure their son was smarter and more advanced developmentally than other children, but they had always thought, albeit arrogantly, that Naruto benefited from parents with really good genes.

"Mom, Dad, what is it? Did I not do it correctly?"

Minato could tell by looking at his son that their stares were scaring him. Quickly he bent down and, with one hand, gently lifted Naruto's chin. He looked into the pair of cerulean blue eyes that were like his own and did his best to sooth the child.

"No, actually you did great, even better than Dad's. See," pointing his finger at Naruto's water sculpture, "yours even froze."

Minato's commendation did wonders. Naruto's face beamed with an enormous and proud grin.

"Really!? That was my first jutsu. Thanks for teaching it to me, Dad!"

Minato and Kushina looked at each other and smiled, their thoughts the same.

_Freakish or not, he's still our son. We love him just the same._

Still, as the Hokage responsible for the safety of countless people in Konoha, Minato had to find out more.

For the past five years, Minato had been wishing that the foreign design on Naruto's belly was a result of an empty sealing, a failure of that forbidden Shinigami technique, though he was not naïve to actually believe his own nonsense.

Another and a more likely possibility was that something else got sealed into Naruto.

_What though? That's the question._

"Naruto, I want you to show Daddy one more time, this time without your shirt on. I want to see that design on your belly as you do it."

Minato detected hesitance in his son. Perhaps Naruto was afraid that he was going to mess up and humiliate himself.

"Naruto, if you do it, Daddy promise you to teach you another jutsu."

Kushina, who had sensed concern in her husband's voice, came around from behind Naruto to get a better view of the seal on their son's belly as well.

Despite the grave implications of what was happening before her, Kushina could not help but smile at Naruto's positive response to the her husband's jutsu bribe.

_Like father, like son._

The young child did as he was told.

As he molded chakra to execute the Suiton jutsu, Minato and Kushina saw something materialized over the design that was already on their son's belly.

A red glowing letter "S."

…o.0.O.0.o…

In an undisclosed location underground stood two men and a child.

In front of them hovered an egg-shaped object, suspended in air, unsupported by fathomable means.

Everyday since the day they had it, they stared at it for hours in silence. And everyday, approximately three hours into their staring, they re-enact the same dialogues.

"Orochimaru-san, do you really think this is Kyuubi's egg?"

Orochimaru turned to his longtime friend and responded with his typical ever-present smirk on his face.

"Of course, Yakushi-san. Why else would it be found near the Kyuubi when it fled the sealing scene? Besides if it's not an egg, why does it keep growing bigger everyday?"

Yakushi, the head of the Medical Association of Konoha, was the one who retrieved the unusually large oblong object from the battle scene. Next to him stood an observant twelve-year-old silver-haired adopted son of his, named Kabuto.

The medic-nin had been Orochimaru's assistant in many of his so-called "research" on human subjects and a stanch supporter of the Snake-Sannin's nomination as the Yondaime of Konoha, which did not work out for them both.

Yakushi had always thought their treasure find was an object alien to this world, one that had to travel a long distance to get to Earth. Furthermore, there was a flaw in his friend's conclusion.

"If it's really Kyuubi's egg, why does it keep itself off the ground, like it's flying? Besides, I don't believe Kyuubi has a gender or can reproduce."

Those too were things that had been bothering Orochimaru since day one, but he would never admit it to Yakushi, or to anyone for that matter. He felt that doing so would show weakness on his part; and the ambitious jutsu-seeker, who had broken every law imaginable to seek more power, would never allow for that.

He hated having the fallacy of his logic thrown into his face, though he knew that his friend was correct.

"It doesn't matter. I'll find out soon enough, and when I do, Konoha will be mine, and Akatsuki will be sorry for betraying me." Never mind that it was he who betrayed the nuke-nin organization. "Meanwhile, were you able to get anything off of it for us to experiment with?"

Yakushi now switched on his scientist mode. A glee that was not there before appeared in his eyes.

"Yes. Though I wasn't able to crack into its outer layer, I was able to collect some greenish crystal powder from the surface of the object" – for he refused to call it an 'egg' – "and, get this, the powder glows in the dark!"

"Um … interesting … I wonder how our test subjects will turn out when we experiment the crystal powder on them."

…o.0.O.0.o…

**A/N: **Thanks to Amael the Chosen for beta'ing.

This chapter is named after Oscar Wilde's _The Portrait of Dorian Gray._

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to leave a review to let me know what you think.

Also, please check out my other story, **Naruto: Swordsman of Nine Lonesome Stances**. Thanks!


	3. The Scarlet Letter

**Naruto: A Different Beginning**

**By Smithjohn2020**

**Chapter 3: The Scarlet Letter**

**A/N:** Hi. Sorry for such a long delay. Those who also read my other story, **Naruto: Swordsman of 9 Lonesome Stances**, are already aware of my reasons, namely bathroom remodeling, but I'm glad this chapter is posted now.

To get it posted as soon as possible, I forego having my beta check it first. If you find anything, please let me know. I've promised to post it today, so here it is.

Plot unrelated to the title borrowed.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything but the words typed here and the original ideas they convey. I make no profit writing this.

…o.0.O.0.o…

It was April.

Seasons came and went. Shadows cast by the sun never stood still.

A twelve-year-old spiky-haired blond Genin strolled under a path of drifting sakura blossoms blown gently by a warm welcoming breeze that infused the air with sweet pleasantness.

He was alone; he had earlier stretched out his ultra sensitive ears and his fine-tuned nose just to be sure.

He treasured these rare moments alone where he could drop all pretenses and be himself, not worrying about fitting into a persona that he had led everyone into believing.

The blond took in a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. His eyes glanced down on his moving sandals and the fallen petals they kicked up.

Raising his head, his eyes followed the three petals floating past him, reminding him of his Jounin-sensei and teammates, Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura.

_Maito Gai is entering his team this year, and knowing how persistent he can be, he'll nag Kakashi-sensei to death unless he too enters us in the Chuunin Exams next month._

One of the bright pink floating petals circled around a monarch butterfly in mid flight. The avian insect tried but failed to circumvent the twirling pedal and got snatched by the small whirlwind left behind its wake.

Naruto reached out his right hand, gently extending his index finger toward the bedazzled insect and cushioning its landing. As he slowly brought his hand back to examine its decorative wings, the butterfly stood, stretched its wings and lifted itself gracefully into air.

He followed its flight through the drifting pedals and a mischievous smirk appeared on his face.

_I wonder how many of them I can catch before the next one hits the ground?_

Moving in super speed, Naruto zipped through the falling pedals as if they were frozen in time, plucking them out of the air en passing. He bounced on the front of his feet, spinning away and dodging the higher ones in lieu of going after those closer to the ground.

It all happened so fast that within a nanosecond, all the tiny pinklets hovering in the air disappeared once the Genin came to a full stop and returned to his exact previous position and body movement, giving the appearance of not having moved at all.

_492._

He could have grabbed more – a lot more – but those were all that were in the air at the time.

Suddenly, he heard heartbeats coming from 10 meters behind. Pondering over how he could have missed detecting someone approaching his private trail of solitude, his muscles readied for action ….

_I've stretched my senses to the borders of Konoha, and yet this person had escaped my detection? How?_

… only to realize that the only technique capable of letting a person appearing out of thin air without any detectable chakra leakage was the most feared technique in the Elemental Nations.

Turning toward the person, Naruto smiled.

"Dad, I didn't know you were getting off early today."

Minato was still in his white Hokage robe, which had designs of orange flames licking on its fringes. Even though it was already six in the evening, it was still considered early for him to be finished for the day.

Before replying his son's question, Minato cautiously darted his eyes from side-to-side.

"Naru-kun, I'm giving you another off-the-books mission. It requires your … uh, abilities."

Naruto smiled, while reflexively focusing his senses to detect for possible spies nearby.

"Relax, Dad. The closest heartbeat from us is 300 meters away, behind me actually."

Minato, who was starting to relax, tensed up even more on hearing that. _Too close._

"Don't get cocky or think too much of your natural abilities, son. No one knows the full spectrum of what could be accomplished by ninjutsu. Tell me, was there any change in position for the past three minutes?"

Naruto now has a puzzled and worried face, furrowing his eyebrows together as he searched his memory.

"Come to think of it, I don't believe so."

With a frustrated sigh at the carelessness of his knucklehead son, Minato shook his head and ordered their departure.

"We have to leave now! Meet me at our regular place."

With those words, Minato, then Naruto, shunshinned away to the Namikaze family dojo, leaving behind two fading twisters of leaves in their place. A few seconds later, an army of dark, ink-drawn mice passed over the previously occupied grounds, sniffing around, only finding nothing.

Three hundred meters away sat a slender dark-haired boy in black ninja attire with a katana tied to his back. He was holding a ram hand seal with his eyes closed - on the ground before him, an opened blank scroll and an ink brush on top.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Two tunnels of twirling leaves later revealed the Namikaze duo sitting in their family dojo. Minato stared contemplatively and furrowed his eyebrows, pondering over the mystery that was his son.

_Sometimes he can be so brilliant, and other times he's even worse of a knucklehead than how his mother describes me._

The twelve-year-old blond sat there bored. Naruto was trying to cross his eyes while navigating his tongue along the upper and lower teeth, soliciting more sighs and occasional headshakes from his father. Finally he got impatient waiting for his father to begin.

"Dad, what's my mission?"

With another heavy sigh, Minato's dejected face was apparent as he remembered the last frustrating attempt at explaining to his son the subtlety of the shinobi way and the danger of underestimating the skills of those around him, especially his enemies.

Naruto, though he lacked patience, was by no means stupid. He knew why his father sighed. In mockery, he too sighed, and in the same exhale, appeased his father by asking the question that was waiting to be asked.

"Dad, I don't get it. Why did you have us meet at our dojo?"

Minato's face twitched in slight annoyance at his pre-teen son.

"You still don't get it, do you?"

Naruto responded with a shrug. If he had wanted to be bothered, he could have come up with an answer himself. However, he really did not care. Having both of his parents around to dote on him had spoiled him rotten. Furthermore, his growing awareness of his … unique … abilities had inflated his ego. Finally, having received regal treatment as the Hokage's son only added fuel to the fire.

Minato sighed for the hundredth time today, having already had a morning ridden with meetings with foreign dignitaries and village Jounins on the upcoming Chuunin Exam, he really did not need this impending headache right now. Rubbing his temples with his index fingers, closing his eyes, he took in a deep long breath to reel in his anger and focused on the more urgent matter at hand.

In times like this, he reminisced about the fond memories of early years when Naruto was more attentive and generally better behaved, if he overlooked the occasional mischief.

It wasn't until last year when Naruto's supernatural abilities emerged and was told to keep them secret from his classmates that the boy started to build up resentment – something he definitely wanted to correct and had been delaying it for reasons that now escaped him. Naruto nearing teenage year did not help matters any.

"_Dad, look!"_

_Minato turned his head to the left, but saw nothing._

"_Behind you, Dad!"_

_Turning his body around, Minato again saw nothing. His eyes squinted in wonderment as he called out his son's name._

"_Right…" came from his left._

_As Minato turned his body to meet Naruto's voice, another came from his right, "… here …."_

_Rolling on the ball of his foot toward the voice, he stopped in midstream as he saw his son appeared standing before his eyes and said, "… Dad."_

_Minato stared dumbfounded at his son, his thoughts were on the Hirashin, but … there were no special kunai arounds._

"_How!? You haven't even seen it done yet! Does your mother know?"_

_Naruto's face sported a wide grin, aglow with pride, as his head bobbed up and down._

"_Yeah! She found me experimenting with it in my room and told me to show it to you. She also said that it's not the hira sushi, or whatever. Cool, isn't it?"_

_Minato could only stare and nod. His face gradually whitened as he realized that it had to something to do with the "S" seal on Naruto's navel._

"_Hey, Dad, you have the same look as Mom just before I came to see you."_

Naruto's other abilities appeared in quick succession. After his lightning speed came his super strength, hearing and smell. The latest ability boost came in the form of his eyes as in laser beams and x-ray vision.

Along with each power boost came new twists and complexity in his pranks and the agonizing despair of the poor souls targeted by his pranks. One of his most notorious was when he invaded the Hyuugas the day after he got his x-ray vision.

_To the young boy, the all-seeing pupil-less white eyes were the ultimate spymaster's must-have. Naruto had always thought that the Hyuugas and their Byakugan were the coolest people with the coolest doujutsu in Konoha. That was until he actually talked to one. Then they became the most arrogant people with the coolest doujutsu._

_They also had the perfect eyes to test his stealth skills and his x-ray vision against._

_The objective was to sneak into the Hyuuga compound during broad daylight and rearrange something in each room._

_Sneaking into the Hyuuga compound was surprisingly easy; it was moving about in the open space before he enters another room and finding which room to enter next that got difficult._

_Cautiously he crouched low and maneuver to the first section of the living quarters, where his x-ray vision detected an "X" mark on everyone's forehead under their protectors._

_He entered the first empty room he came across. Inside he found a simple room with nothing but a bed pushed against the farthest wall._

"_This is just silly. What could I do with just a bed?" he whispered._

_Deciding to make lemonade out of lemons, he used his super strength to turn the bed and its frame upside down. Once done, he stood back to admire his work before moving on to the next room._

_He found the next few rooms to be equally unexciting. Finally he came into a room with additional furniture – a desk – on top of which there were some sketches of different human poses. He picked them up and looked through them._

"_Whew, I'm glad these aren't pictures like those that Kakashi-sensei looks at. It seems like they are sketches of taijutsu moves, and one of them says 'Kaiton.' Hehe, looks like someone's been using the Byakugan to spy out some secret techniques."_

_He was about to continue on with his verbal analysis, but he heard footsteps approaching the room._

_Taking one last look at the drawings and committing them to memory, his hand grabbed a writing brush and moved in a blur, drawing a few smiley faces on some of the drawings before flashing out of there. As he was leaving, he ran by a boy who was in process of taking the next step, seemingly in slow motion._

_The boy was a year older in the Academy, and Naruto believed his name was Neji. Moving at the supersonic speed, Naruto zip-zagged into another room before his presence was detected._

_To the Neji in normal time, it seemed like a breeze had just blown by._

_Deciding not to chance being discovered by Neji who evidently was not against using the Byakugan to spy on his own family, Naruto maintained his warp speed going through the rest of Hyuuga quarters, rearranging beds, searching out secret compartments with his vision, and bringing out the hidden items to view by placing them on the beds._

_The whole thing was a big embarrassment to the uptight clan whose elders believed the culprit could only be a Hyuuga using the Byakugan. After a few months of fruitless intense internal investigation, they decided to keep it under wraps. The only people that knew about it outside the clan were Naruto and the ones he boasted it to, namely his parents._

Minato opened his eyes and softly rested their focus on Naruto.

"Naru-kun, I know this is a tough age for you. It isn't fair for you having to carry this burden from birth, hiding your abilities from your peers, and most of all, dealing with growth changes and establishing your own individuality."

Naruto rolled his eyes; his body language screamed, "You have no idea what I go through!"

Putting on his winsome smile, Minato changed tactics.

"I know it may seem hard to believe, but I wasn't always this old. I didn't come out of my mother looking like I do now."

That finally broke the ice and got a chuckle out of the reluctant pre-teen boy.

Minato then schooled his face to reflect the seriousness of what he was about to say.

"Naru-kun, do you know why you need to act like a class clown and hide your abilities from others?"

In a mockery tone, Naruto repeated verbatim what he had heard many times from his mother.

"Because doing so will keep me safe from enemies or factions in the village council that would want to do experiments on me."

Minato brought his hands up to form a cushion to rest his head, making what he wanted to say seemed even weightier.

"That wasn't what I asked." He paused briefly to get the desired puzzled look on his son's face. "What you've given me was that of your parents. I've asked for _your_ reasons."

Now Naruto was really confused.

"Uh … I _don't _have any reason to keep my abilities a secret. I kinda think it would be cool if my classmates know the truth about me. Plus, didn't you and Mom pound into me the need to be honest?"

Minato then remembered why he had been putting off this talk for so long. Naruto could be quite the litigator if he wanted to, having already picked up a handful of strategies watching his parents' occasional lover spats.

"And we still stand by our words, but not revealing everything about yourself or keeping secrets from your classmates does not constitute lying. I think you know that already."

Naruto heard his father's words and viewed it as an invitation to reopen the subject for discussion.

"So, does that mean I don't have to keep hiding who I am?"

Seeing Naruto still not understanding what he was getting at, Minato was left with no choice but to discuss a topic that was particularly painful for him to do so – in hopes that doing so will reach through that knucklehead son of his – and braced himself mentally for the emotional pain that he would have to deal with later.

"Listen carefully son in what I am about to tell you. I think it's time you know the true history of that seal on your navel."

Naruto was all ears.

"Twelve years ago the Kyuubi attacked Konoha for reasons that we're still trying to figure out. On that same day, we also had warnings that meteor rocks were heading toward us…."

Naruto was about to interrupt his father to let him know that he was taught this at the Academy, but decided not to. He mentally tuned out the part about how the village was evacuated to the Battle Stadium which was turned into a make-shift meteorite shelter and that it was supposed to be his dad fighting the Kyuubi and not the Sandaime.

Then, something his father said recaptured his attention.

"… what was not in the textbooks was that Kyuubi did not kill the Sandaime … my seal did … it was a forbidden fuinjutsu, where the user could call on the Shirigami to seal away anything in return for his soul to be swallowed into the belly of the Death God."

Naruto widened his eyes as he realized the implication of his father's statement.

"The bijuu containment sealing must be done on a newborn so as he grows, his chakra coils can adjust to contain the enormous chakra of the bijuu, and you happened to be the only one that fit the requirements that night. Like I said, _I _was supposed to be the one out there battling the Nine-Tailed bijuu. It was _my_ life that was supposed to be taken that night."

_So, the Kyuubi's in me? Why me? Would I have been orphaned?_

Many other questions popped into Naruto's mind, but he dared not interrupt his father's narrative at this moment. He got a feeling that most of them would be answered. One thing was sure: His respect the Sandaime and appreciation for what he had done grew leaps and bound.

"The Sandaime had the Kyuubi detained long enough for the sealing jutsu to take place, but at that misfortunate time, one of the meteorites landed nearby, disrupted the sealing, and allowed the Kyuubi to escape."

Naruto could not wait for his father to get to the answer for this one urgent question.

"So I don't have the Kyuubi in me? Then what's this 'S' seal on my belly?"

"I'm not quite sure…."

… he could see the relief on his son's face at the same time that another worried face formed …

"… My best guess is that it has something to do with that meteorite that landed nearby the sealing. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the scene, it went missing. There was a short trail of it being dragged toward a destination, and then the trail was no more. It probably got snatched up by a large summon of some sort."

Minato paused a moment to compose himself before continuing and to let what he said sink in.

"The only way to find out is to unlock the seal, using a key I've designed for its original purpose, which was to help you control all of the Kyuubi's chakra. But since you don't have the Kyuubi in you, I'm not sure what the consequences will be if we are to use that same key on the foreign seal."

Silence ensued as each processed what was said and what to say next. Finally Naruto broke silence. His voice was mellow and did not contain the usual resentment or sarcasm.

"Dad, I don't understand what this has anything to do with why I would want to keep my abilities a secret."

Those words reminded Minato why he had burdened himself with those feelings again.

"If it had been me that night and if it had been the Kyuubi sealed into you, chances were that your mother who was comatose after giving birth to you would probably never have waken up. Without your mother or me to protect you from the many enemies that I had or so that other villages wouldn't invade Konoha to snatch you up and turn you into their ultimate weapon, my dying wishes were to have you declared an orphan and let you take your mother's maiden name, Uzumaki. I would do that to protect you, my beloved son."

Minato could see that Naruto was moved by what he heard, but remained confused about its application. Giving him a reassuring smile, he continued in a soft and aspiring tone.

"You are now in a similar situation. You have a secret that if it was to be made known to others, not only your life, but the lives of those you love could be in danger. You've never been sick or injured, and I don't think you'll ever be. You probably think that you're indestructible, and you probably are, but what about your friends? What about your loved ones? If your enemies couldn't hurt you directly, they'll go through other means to hurt you. Do you want that? All just for others to know you're stronger and smarter than they are?"

Naruto broke eye contact in shame and looked down onto his hands whose fingers were entwined together, his elbows resting on his lap. Minato could barely make out his son's solemn face hidden behind his draping banes.

"No, I can't … I won't let that happen, even if it means that I'll be forever known as the village idiot."

Happy that he finally got through to Naruto, Minato chirped up with the following words.

"It's not that bad son. Remember others not knowing your tramp cards first means you'll maintain the element of surprise. When you do go all out, remember one things: Dead enemies are the only ones that will keep your secret. That was certainly true of me and my Hirashin."

Naruto's head was still hung, but he did nod in understanding.

"But I have some good news that can let you unleash your full abilities without endangering the lives of those around you."

Naruto looked up at his father at once, his face clearly brightened.

"I have talked it over with Mom, and we both agreed that under urgent situations and you need to use your super speed, you can. And if someone sees you, you can just say that it's your bloodline. People would think nothing of it and would probably get most of them to stop bothering me to teach them the Hirashin once they concluded that it's a bloodline technique."

Nodding his head like the twelve-year-old that he was, Naruto's eyes sparkled to convey the happiness and relief he felt in his heart.

Minato then revealed the one seal that took him longer to create than all others and one of his proudest creation – this one being a product of a father's love.

"There's more, I developed a henge seal that, once activated, will transform your appearance and even mask off your chakra signature without giving off the usual telltale signs of a chakra leak as in a traditional henge. And it doesn't require any chakra to maintain it."

Naruto eagerly anticipated his father's explanation as he watched his father getting ready a Fuin brush and some chakra-infused ink, which strangely was crimson red. On a piece of paper, there were swivels of "S" patterns all over it.

"I named this Keiseki Fuuin." Shape-Track Seal.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to connect the name to what he was seeing, but without success. So he pointed his finger and asked.

"Dad, shouldn't Fuin ink be black?"

Minato answered with a shrug.

"True, but for some reason, this seal can only work if the markings are drawn in sheep's blood. Take your clothes off. This seal I'm going to draw, an overlay of "S" patterns, is quite large and will have to cover your whole body. When I'm done, I'll show you how to activate and release it…."

Naruto was having a hard time containing his excitement. He was already stripped to his boxers.

"… which you'll need to get proficient in before leaving for your mission. You'll activate that seal and remain in henge during all the secret missions from now on."

Minato then pointed to his boxers as well, and Naruto gladly complied.

"Where are you sending me this time, Dad?"

Minato had a mischievous grin on his face when answering.

"I'll tell you after we're done."

…o.0.O.0.o…

**A/N: **Chapter 4 will come out same time next week.

This chapter is named after Nathaniel Hawthorne's _The Scarlet Letter. _Thanks for reading. Please review to let me know what you think.


	4. I'm Your Romeo

**Naruto: A Different Beginning**

**By Smithjohn2020**

**Chapter 4: I'm Your Romeo**

**A/N:** Hi. A new chapter a week later, as promised, though a day late. Readers and reviewers … thank you. Unbeta'ed

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything except the words below and the original ideas they convey.

…o.0.O.0.o…

(A year ago, Hyuuga compound)

A blue-haired eleven-year-old girl made her way back to her room.

She was running.

She ran faster than she had ever done so in her life – faster than when she was trying to escape from the Kumo kidnappers a few years ago.

She had to.

After seeing the shock on her relatives' faces and the agonizing voices of those who had their hidden unmentionables openly exposed for all to see, she could think of nothing else more urgent than for her to get back to her room as fast as her short, but toned legs could carry her.

As she waltzed by, Hiashi followed her movement with his stoic expression. Once she left his viewing range, he turned his attention to his younger daughter who stood next to him. In his mind, however, he was very much surprised by the assertiveness that his older daughter had just displayed.

At last, the sprinting girl reached her room. She entered quickly, kicked off her sandals, and slid the screen door shut behind her. She was hoping that she had made it there before anyone, especially before the Branch members her father had sent to assess the damages.

Seeing how everything was just as she had left it brought a sigh of relief out from her.

_Looks like I had hidden it better than I thought._

Leaning her back against the screens, she waited the temporary surge of adrenaline rush dissipated. Her legs slowly gave way to exhaustion, and she slid down into a crouching position.

"Hinata-sama!"

She jumped, clearly startled by the Branch member who had called out her name. Her thoughts were still on her diary, which she wanted to remove from its hidden compartment and examine for signs of disturbance.

Hinata would rather not be bothered. But she knew that if a reply was not supplied, then those damage assessors would barge in to survey the room.

"Ano … D-don't need to c-come in. Nothing is missing. Just few things that need to be rearranged."

"Do you need our help?"

"No …" _just leave! _ "… I'll be fine. Thank you."

"Very well."

The two Hyuugas outside her door looked at each other and shrugged. They would have gladly stayed to help the only Main House member who had been consistently kind to them and the rest of the Branch Members, but they were glad that they did not have to delay carrying out their assignment and reporting back to Hiashi.

After she was sure that they were gone, she removed the floor panel and took out a worn out leather-covered notebook where she kept her private thoughts in.

Briefly she imagined the embarrassment she would be suffering if her diary got out into the open where the clan members – the worst of whom, her father – had access to her most private thoughts and feelings, especially of those about a certain blond classmate of hers.

Shaking that horrid thought off her mind, she sat down, hugged the notebook close to her chest and took a deep breath, content that all was good in her world.

It was … until she opened it up to the page of her last entry ….

On it she found a smiley face with an "S" scribbled next to it.

Her eyes shot wide open while she blushed deep crimson at the knowledge that someone had read her most intimate and private thoughts about her Naruto-kun. Her mind shut down, and the notebook fell out from her hands onto her lap.

She fainted.

(Present Time)

_Today would be the day, I swear it. I'm going to walk up to him and say "Hi," and I won't stutter. He's going to smile at me like he always does, and I won't faint._

Hinata concealed her presence behind a building next to the Namikaze residence. She mumbled to herself while reaching her head around the corner to see if her favorite blond had shown up.

She had been searching all day for Naruto, looking in all of his favorite places – Ichiraku, the Sandaime's head at the Hokage Monument, and training ground 7 – for a chance to tell him how she felt.

It was not her first time making such a mental vow, but her previous efforts had been thwarted by one excuse after another.

The underlying reason remained the same: She was scared that he would not feel the same.

However, she felt especially confident today, at least that was what she tried to convince herself.

_Today would be different, I swear it._

Taking another peek, her determination waivered slightly when she saw the door to the Namikaze compound opening.

Quickly retreating behind the building walls, she remained hidden while activating her bloodline.

…o.0.O.0.o…

A rather handsome boy with a light tan and jet black hair stepped out of the Namikaze compound dressed in a navy blue ANBU style jumpsuit and a crimson hooded overcoat. His outfit accentuated his well-toned body. The color of his eyes rivaled that of Naruto's, the purest cerulean blue that had the depth of mystery when one looked into them. In place of the usual leaf symbol on his hitai-ate was a scarlet letter "S."

He perked up his ears and took a whiff of the air and was not surprised by whom he detected.

_So she's here, huh? I wonder if I can have some fun with this henge._

Using his ears to hone in on the location of her heartbeat, he turned toward the building behind which she was hiding and with his x-ray vision stared right through the walls, into what would be her face, seeing her eyes, the bulging veins surrounding them, and the disappointment that she had not spotted Naruto yet.

For a few seconds, Naruto kept looking her way, knowing full well that her Byakugan could tell that he was locking eyes with her. Soon, his super hearing picked up a faintly whispered "Eeep." His eyes saw the disbelief on her face that she had been detected. Cautiously she inched away from the building that was supposed to hide her.

Sensing no one else nearby, he decided to pay his one and only fan-girl an in-your-face visit.

He also wanted to test to see if his disguise could fool even Hinata, who was a self-proclaimed "expert of Naruto," at least that was what he had remembered reading from her diary.

_Dear Diary,_

_Today was another day that I had followed Naruto. I wanted to tell him how much strength I had drawn from his nindo to Never Give Up, how much brighter my day felt whenever he smiled at me, or how my fingers tingle when he got near me._

_But, like yesterday, I didn't have the guts to walk up to him and just say it. So I wrote on a piece of paper, "I am your Juliet. Would you be my Romeo?" But I ended up misplacing it somehow, and I couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe I didn't write it after all. Maybe I had imagined the whole thing. I'm so confused._

_At this rate, I could end up writing an unofficial guide on Naruto, having already watched him for so long._

Naruto could still recall the shock he was in when he read that entry and many more similar to it. He remembered that it had almost jeopardized him getting caught red-handed pranking on the Hyuugas.

The following few weeks he felt uncomfortable around her and paranoid when alone, always pretending to bend down to dust his sandals so he could check if Hinata or some other was following him.

Having read her diary also allowed him to understand her and thus, made him pay attention to her more. All the little things and personality quirks that he had never noticed before meant something to him then.

Days gone by, and his feelings for her grew without his knowledge. Then, one day, when he could not detect her stalking him, he worried and felt as if a part of him was missing. He remembered how distraught he was. Using his supersonic speed, he zoomed to her room. His heart rejoiced when he found her asleep peacefully. He knew then that he had developed feelings for her.

None of that mattered now. He realized that he had no choice but to accept the burden of bearing the scarlet letter. In his mind he replayed his father's warning to him.

_If your enemies couldn't hurt you directly, they'll go through other means to hurt you. Do you want that?_

Mentally shaking away his thoughts, he focused on the task at hand and supersped behind her. His right hand covered her mouth to silence her screams. His left arm wrapped around her waist and enveloped her in a hug. He then realized how warm and comfortable holding her felt and how her soft curves fitted nicely against his firm body.

From her behind, Naruto's x-ray vision could see the shock on her face.

Then, her shock turned into righteous female fury, and she fought his grip as if her life depended on it. Actually, she really thought it did, especially when the Academy had warned them about what ninjas do to kunoichis under their capture.

Naruto, acting out of instinct, he did what he saw his father doing many times to calm his mother down when she was mad at him.

Leaning in, he whispered calmly into her left ear, unknowingly sending tingles up and down her spine.

"Shhh. Quiet, Hinata-chan. I know you don't know me." – and her Byakugan could not tell that it was Naruto in henge – "I'm not here to hurt you. I only want to pass on a message from Naruto. I'm going to let go my hand. Don't yell, okay?"

_Message from Naruto-kun?_

She did not trust herself to answer and only nodded dumbly to whatever he had said. She did not quite trust this strange boy, but she was willing to keep silent as long as no harm befell her and that she got to hear Naruto's message.

Her Byakugan tried to see if this was someone she knew, but saw none of the telltale signs of henge no jutsu.

She wanted to ask questions, like how did he get behind her without the Byakugan's detection and what was his connection with Naruto. But she could not. The strange boy's invasion into the personal space of a budding female with pre-teen hormones was giving her sensations she had never felt with anyone else.

With Naruto, her feelings were nothing more than a crush … perhaps more … perhaps she really did love him. Whatever her feelings were for Naruto, they were only one sided, at least that was what she kept saying to herself. With this strange boy, however, she felt herself responding in a _physical _way. Those sensations felt nice and magical and were what she had always wanted to feel with her Naruto-kun.

Plus, this being her first time being hugged by a boy was confusing as hell.

_He's hugging me, and his lips are so close to my face! BUT I'm saving myself for Naruto-kun! I'm saving myself for Naruto-kun!_

The Henged-Naruto slowly uncovered her mouth, let go his arm, and turned her around to face him. Instead of an angry or a shocked expression, he found a beet red face and a timid smile.

He wanted to let go of her and step back, but found his hands unwilling to part her shoulders and his legs unwilling to help.

_What the hell? C'mon Naruto, snap out of this! Remember what Dad said about bad guys using people you care about to get back at you. C'mon, if you really care about this girl, make her hate you!_

Hinata could tell that the boy before her was conflicting with himself about something, but her mind was too occupied to care as she too was struggling with her own feelings.

_Hinata! Why are you still letting this stranger hold you? You're not that type of girl! It's Naruto-kun you love!_

She closed her eyes and violently shook her head from left to right, freeing herself from his enchanting eyes and the influence her own hormones had her under.

When she opened them again, she was no longer the timid, helpless little girl under the spell of a boy. She was now a strong, determined kunoichi.

The Henged-Naruto was just about to give her a mean message from 'Naruto' – something that would make her hate him – but he could not find any strength in him to do what was right by her, especially not after seeing how beautiful her determination made her.

_Is this the Hinata-chan I know? She is way much cuter like this!_

He was about to say something to disrupt the awkward silence between them, but his instincts told him to let go and step back.

He barely dodged a disabling Jyuuken strike to his heart.

"Whoa, Hinata-chan, what the hell?!"

Again, his instincts told him to dodge. And again, the blow missed, but came a little too close for comfort.

He could have used his superior speed and bind Hinata again – his hormones urged him to – but that would only get him back to where he'd started, which was nowhere. He said the next few words in between breaths while dodging her nonstop attacks.

"Hinata-chan, stop! I don't want to fight you."

The Hyuuga heir was getting quite frustrated with how much quicker the boy who had violated her – in her mind she felt violated – was.

"Hold still, whoever you are. Who are you anyway?"

Her lack of stuttering did not go unnoticed by Naruto.

"My name is …."

He left his sentence unfinished as he needed a few seconds to think. Several names came to mind, but none he really liked.

While he was thinking, he continued to avoid her attacks. He jumped over her sweeping leg kick. Upon landing, he dropped to his knees and rolled to the left, avoiding a palm strike aiming at what would have been the tenketsu on his right shoulder.

Then, his inner voice sounded off a name which he repeated.

"… Kal-El."

Those alien syllables did not quite roll off his tongue, but somehow it felt right.

Even after twenty unconnecting attacks, Hinata was still not letting up.

Normally, she would have just quit, resigned to her own weakness, and mentally replayed her father's disappointed belittlement over and over again until she no longer had any self worth. However, this boy, like her beloved Naruto-kun, seemed to bring out an unfamiliar tenacity in her, albeit, in the worst way possible.

Hinata could see that the boy moved at a speed at another level than she AND even worse, she knew he was holding back. After making two more halfhearted attempts, she stopped as she realized the futility of her efforts.

"How did you know my name? And what's Naruto-kun's message?"

Though the henge seal could alter his appearance and chakra signature, it could do little to alter Naruto's prankster nature. He decided to let it out to play just so he could get a reaction from her.

"It's my business to know all the names of the cute girls of the villages I visited."

That definitely got a reaction.

"K-cute?"

No longer was she the confident kunoichi. Her blushing and stuttering returned. This time, she even pressed her index fingers together.

His prankster side pressed forward. With some urging from his hormones, he flash stepped to a spot behind her and whispered seductively into her right ear.

"Yep. And I bet you'll grow up to be a real hottie, too."

He returned to his previous position with a face split in a wide grin, seeing her blush deepened even more.

"Please, d-don't t-tease me anymore. I'm s-saving m-myself for N-naruto-kun."

Naruto did not understand the strange turmoil he was going through in his heart; his eyebrows furrowed, and his face soured.

_This is silly! Why am I getting jealous? She said "Naruto-kun," and _I'm_ Naruto-kun._

He shook his head, trying to shake away that feeling, but couldn't. His next words came out a little harsher then he'd intended them to be.

"Why? What's Naruto got that I … Why do you like Naruto so much, huh? That baka is infatuated with his pink-haired teammate" – never mind that his infatuation was only an act, a part of the idiot persona that he was trying to project – "and probably doesn't even know you exist anyway!"

That came out wrong.

It hurt like hell.

In the depth of her heart, she had always believed it to be true – that Sakura was way prettier than she was and that Naruto would never find her attractive.

Hinata buried her face into her hands and gave way to tears.

The boy-in-henge cursed at himself and felt regret for saying those words to her. He had originally wanted to break her heart so that she would give up on searching him out, but he could not go through with it. His own stupid jealousy getting in the way now, resulting in her heartbreak, was completely unexpected.

Then his regret turned into anger. He clutched his fists so hard that if he was able to wound himself, his nails would have drawn blood. A certain entry from Hinata's diary replayed in his mind.

_Dear Diary,_

_10 December. Today is my birthday. I don't think Father noticed. Again I had to celebrate it with the members of the Branch Family. Father was correcting my Jyuuken form again. He was very disappointed in my lack of improvement. I did try … but, still not good enough. He said that Hanabi would be a stronger clan leader. I think he's right … I am weak and worthless._

_Mom, I missed you._

Still with his fists clutched, Naruto made a silent promise to pay Hiashi a visit after he came back from his mission.

He returned his thoughts back to the brokenhearted girl in front of him and walked toward her so he could embrace and comfort her.

Hinata saw him approaching her. With her head still cowering over and tears streaming down from her eyes, she could not have seen the regret on the stranger's face. All she saw was the boy that had caused her so much pain getting closer to her.

She waited.

When he was within her reach, she straightened herself into a Jyuuken stance and whispered.

"You are within the field of my divination."

She struck. This time, they landed. All of them.

Naruto was too close to have dodged her strikes, or perhaps he did not bother trying. Perhaps he wanted to allow her to vent all her anger on him. Perhaps he wanted to be punished for the hurt he had caused her.

He did not shield himself with his super abilities. He stood there and felt every blow to his tenketsu points sealing away his chakra.

Before executing the last palm strike, this one to the heart, she shouted with righteous fervor and held nothing back.

"No one touches me but my Naruto-kun!"

The palm strike landed squarely on dark-haired boy's chest and blasted him into the air, landing 10 meters away, kicking up a cloud of dust as his body rolled to a stop. If Hiashi had been there to see her Jyuuken form, he would have been proud, though he would never commend her for it.

The boy lay there motionless.

When the dust settled, instead of seeing an injured dark-haired boy clothed in the flamboyant red and blue outfit with a foreign "S" symbol on his hitai-ate, Hinata saw a familiar spiky-haired blond in orange jumpsuit. She could not identify the boy's hitai-ate since his face was buried in the ground, but she did not need to because she _knew_ who this was.

After confirming with her Byakugan that the scene before her was not a genjutsu, Hinata ran to her beloved Naruto-kun, hoping against all odds that he would still be alive.

When she got there, she turned him over and panicked as she plopped herself onto her knees.

_How? Why? What do I do now? C'mon, Hinata, think!_

Her mind did not work well under stress. She could have used her bloodline to see if his heart was still beating. She could have tried to do what her father had only shown her once, which was unsealing the tenketsus. She could have given him a mouth-to-mouth CPR, something she would never have done anyway. Or she could have run to the Namikaze compound to get help.

But she did none of that.

With quickened breaths, shaky hands, and enough adrenaline flooding her brain to drown a cat, she leaned down and hugged him, wiping her tears on his chest while she pounded and cursed at him in between her wails.

"Naruto-kun, don't you dare die on me, you bastard!"

The said boy remained motionless with dirt all over his body and clothing. He was not really injured as he was not wounded anywhere; however, he felt pain when his tenketsus were being closed and when she gave him that tremendous blow to his heart.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and waited until his vision cleared and his thoughts caught up to his brain. Gently, he returned her hug and stroked her hair.

"I'm okay, Hinata-chan."

She looked up and saw his weak but reassuring smile. She was happy, then sad, and finally outright hysterical.

"You bastard! You'd better be alive, or I'll kill you!"

Seeing her changing facial expressions and hearing her incoherent thoughts, he laughed and then winced in pain.

With a great deal of struggle and a lot of assistance from her, he propped himself up.

"Thanks, Hinata-chan. You know, you're much cuter when you're more confident in yourself like you are now."

That reminded her of who she was supposed to be – someone weak, unworthy of love. Subconsciously she reverted back to her supershy self. Just as she was turning her head away and pressing her fingers together, she heard his request and felt his hands touching hers reassuringly.

"Forget what your dad had said. You're not weak. You're not worthless. And your mom would have been proud of what a fine young lady you've become."

Hinata braved a smile at her crush's kind words, then her eyes widened in shock once she processed everything he'd said. Her words sounded off her confusion and the feeling of being betrayed.

"It was you," – both of them knew she was referring to the mystery intruder of the Hyuuga compound – "and you've read my diary!"

Naruto did not deny it; he certainly left enough clues for her to draw that conclusion. His right hand reached behind his head. He gave her a big guilty grin, knowing that he had to say something nice or else risk being the receiving end of her Jyuuken again.

"And you're as smart as you're beautiful."

Right now, Hinata could not deal with this and everything else that had happened so far. She needed some time by herself to think. There was a lot for her to process.

First she had to deal with a flirty black-haired boy who insulted her and her crush. Then she found out that the boy was actually her Naruto-kun, whom she'd thought almost killed. Finally, her crush turned out to be the one person she had hated the most, the intruder who had violated her privacy by reading her diary, no doubt already aware of her feelings for him.

Feeling angry and a desperate need to get away, she stood up abruptly, only to faint and be caught in an embrace by the person from whom she was trying to escape.

Naruto had seen this before and knew what had to be done to revive her. And he needed to. He still had not told her what he originally had wanted to say.

Using a medical jutsu his mother had taught him, he flashed through some hand seals and placed his right hand on her to infuse chakra into her coils. Gradually, the jutsu was having an effect on her.

Consequently, the only place Kushina had shown him to place his hand was the tenketsu right in the middle of her sternum, which was slightly above her developing breasts.

Hinata woke up in her crush's embrace. Her blush deepened once she realized her surroundings and _where_ he was touching her, yet unlike before when she was trying to get away, she did not feel threatened or violated; she felt warm, safe, and loved for the first time since her mother passed away.

Part of the reason was because she had a weight lifted off of her – finally, she had made known her feelings to him, though not in the way she had imagined it. It was very liberating.

Seeing his classmate's new shade of red made Naruto realize how intimately he was touching her. He too sported a shade of red that rivaled hers. He then saw her lowering her head slightly, taking occasional peaks at him while stuttering through her question.

"Uh, N-naruto-k-kun, what w-was it th-that Kal-El w-want t-to talk to me ab-bout?"

Raising his glaze from looking where he was placing his hand on her chest, he struggled not to blush while trying to answer her question. His reply came out unprocessed.

"Oh yeah, I …."

… the original plan was for him to hurt her so that she would stop wasting her time going after love that could not and had no intention of being returned … but he could not go through with it … he realized right then and there that if he was to ever lose her, he would forever be incomplete … because she completed him …

"… I just wanted to know what your goals are."

The blue-haired girl's timid smile changed into a puzzled expression as she searched his face for answers.

"G-goals? You're not s-serious, are you? All this, j-just to ask m-me for my g-goals?"

She could easily tell that he was lying. Her Hyuuga training had taught her how to read people like books, but in this case, Naruto's signs were so obvious that anyone could have called him on it.

He hugged her, leaning in and resting his head on her shoulders, smelling the lilac scent in her hair, treasuring what he thought he would have lost had he gone through with his original plan. So he just have to run with this question he had popped out thinking.

"I'm sorry Hinata-chan. I … um … just humor me … what are your goals?"

His whisper caused her to quiver slightly, which only made him hug her more snuggly.

"I don't have any goals."

She used to when her mother was alive. Since her death, however, a part of Hinata went with her. She was never the same. Of course, having a father that subconsciously blamed her for his wife's death did not help matters any.

"You have to have goals. Everyone has goals!"

Naruto turned her right shoulders into his chest so that she could see the seriousness on his face.

"As long as I can remember, I wanted to go out there" – he was pointing to the sky – "to see the stars … to see if there are anyone else like us. I guess a part of me still does. And as I grow older, I have other goals, some mundane, like eating one more bowl of ramen than I did the day before. And others serious, like receiving my dad's robe when he's ready to retire."

His eyes returned to her face. He looked into her lavender pupil-less eyes.

"If you want to be with me, you must have goals. I'm complicated in more ways than one. I need someone to be my anchor, a safe haven for me to return to, and you can't be one if you don't know where you are and where you're heading. You can't be with me if don't have goals."

Hinata looked away, but his hand was there to guide her chin so that her eyes found their way back to his.

"I'm not saying you're weak, because today you've shown us both how strong you really are. I'm just saying that I want you to remember how special you are, and once you do, you'll start to live … dream … and plan."

"But what if I don't feel special about myself?"

"Well, sometimes I feel that way about myself too. Like right now, I'm wondering how a beautiful and kind person like you fall in love with an idiot class clown like me."

Hinata reached out to hold his face. She leaned her forehead against his, tears rolling down her cheek. Those words were the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her. She whispered something reassuring.

"But you are special to_ me_."

No stuttering.

She was not sure where she found the courage to touch his face, sitting so intimately close to him, their noses almost touching and their lips only teasingly apart.

Naruto could only stare at the Hyuuga heiress, mesmerized by her beauty and slightly intimidated by her forwardness. He then remembered that his mother had told him that a sudden boost in strength and boldness would occasionally happen to recipients of the chakra infusion.

And, deep down, he knew that had circumstances been different in her childhood, she would be every bit the strong person he knew she could be.

The ensuing few seconds of silence communicated a promise filled with a lifetime of bliss.

He wanted to reciprocate her feelings, to reassure her that he would do anything to be worthy of her affection. He wanted to say something … anything … but he couldn't.

She was kissing him.

He kissed her back.

…o.0.O.0.o…

**A/N: **Writing about twelve-year-olds going through their emotional and hormonally charged ups and downs was really difficult for me. Adding to the mix was having to put a romantic spin on it.

This chapter's name is derived from William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," but you already know that.

This is the first romantic scene I've written in any of my stories. PLEASE, let me know what you think! Just click the review button below. I humbly thank you in advance.


	5. As You Like It

**Naruto: A Different Beginning**

**By Smithjohn2020**

**Chapter 5: As You Like It  
**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything except the words below and the original ideas they convey.

Unbeta'ed. Plot unrelated to the title borrowed.

…o.0.O.0.o…

He wanted to reciprocate her feelings, to reassure her that he would do anything to be worthy of her affection. He wanted to say something … anything … but he couldn't.

She was kissing him.

He kissed her back.

Or at least, that's what he thought he was doing.

Having his right hand still on her sternum for the chakra infusion technique made his posture too awkward to kiss. He wanted to lean in and melt his lips into her kiss, but his hand was in the way.

A part of him wanted to remove his hand from her chest to pull her closer so that he could get better access to her lips.

But a part of him was afraid that doing so – disengaging the chakra infusion – would revert her back to her shyness, and frankly he had taken a liking to this assertive side of Hinata. Plus, his hormones liked having his hand on her sternum, so close to her developing ….

"Naruto-kun … come closer."

She had to break the kiss, if only for a moment. It was so frustrating that she couldn't have a better tasting of her Naruto-kun's lips. She had been fantasizing about this GREAT and MONENTOUS moment for so long that the disappointment resulting from their current awkwardly positioned bodies was getting to her.

"I need you closer."

Again he tried to close in the gap between their heated bodies, but his right hand was constantly in the way.

Actually, had they been more experienced, they would have found ways to better position themselves for a more natural kiss, even with Naruto's offending hand unmoved. As this was the first time kissing for the both of them, the awkwardness was expected. Despite how much Hinata, and in some ways Naruto too, wanted this to be the perfect kiss that they could tell their kids about, the sparks just did not fly in that kiss the way people romanticized about, leaving them both in want.

Hinata took the lead in the beginning. All her pinned up emotions for Naruto made it natural for her to deepen herself into the kiss.

It took Naruto a moment to overcome that initial shock before he learned how his lips were supposed to fit into hers and where he was allowed to touch so as to remain chaste, but natural.

Although it was not exactly how Hinata had pictured their first kiss, it was still a kiss with her Naruto-kun, something which she was elated about.

Then they had to break the kiss again. This time, so they could catch a breather. It wasn't a perfect kiss, but it was good enough that both wanted more. It certainly seemed a whole lot shorter than either had wanted it to be. But, for now, they were content to remain in the moment.

With their foreheads leaning on each other, theirs senses tried to capture the magic of that moment, the grace of other's smile, the shape of his or her lips, the sweetness of their kiss that lingered on, and the addictiveness of the other's scent.

Naruto's hypersensitive smell, which could pick up even the slightest trace of pheromone, was getting showered with an abundance coming from his one and only fan-girl, sending his own hormones into overdrive, compromising his concentration on the Infusion Jutsu.

His right hand slipped slightly … but not too much.

The minute movement was enough to send the already charged Hinata overboard. Her back arched on reflex, pushing her chest into his touch. A soft moan escaped her mouth.

That did it for the blond.

Throwing caution into the wind, he took his right hand off her chest, effectively disengaging the infusion technique, and held her closer to him, pressing their heating bodies tightly together.

His impulsiveness surprised them both.

Naruto didn't know what was supposed to come next. All he knew was that it felt as good as he thought it would to press her body against his.

"Hime, stay with me."

… meaning for her not to faint since she was no longer under the influence of the infusion technique. But it only caused her to blush even more because she thought he'd meant something else, which was not entirely inconceivable in her mind, considering how he had read her most intimate thoughts off of her diary.

"Hh-hum!"

The sound of a man clearing his throat startled them both, Hinata more so than Naruto. She quickly pushed off her crush to put some distance between them.

No, Hinata was not ashamed to be publically identified as the girlfriend of a boy whose alter ego was dubbed as the class clown, or the class dobe as Kiba and Sasuke had affectionately termed him. After some of the speed that she saw in Naruto's henged alter ego, Kal-El, she knew for certain that there was more to him than what met the eyes.

Her issue was how promiscuous she looked with her current posture; though in her mind, all they had managed was exchanging kisses. Perhaps a part of her was also ashamed of her inner desire to act out some of her fantasies and feared that those thoughts could be read by the bystanders.

Crush or not, she still was the Hyuuga heiress and had her good name to keep.

Naruto, on the other hand, received a jolt back to reality. The guttural interjection had somewhat struck a cord with his inner conscience and awaken his need to protect Hinata from the dangers associated with knowing his secret or getting too close to him.

As Hinata was turning her head to see who it was that made the first sound, she was surprised to hear another sound coming from the same direction.

"Hehe, looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree."

_NO! Another person witnessed my kiss with Naruto-kun?_

Once she saw the intruders' faces, Hinata's eyes widen in shock. She fainted and was caught by Naruto before her head hit the ground.

Naruto's reaction to the two onlookers was different. Searching through his sensory memory, he remembered picking up faint sounds of two additional sets of heartbeats right when he got up from Hinata's Jyuuken strike. He must not have noticed them as much because at the time he was still shaking off the effect of the Jyuuken and his mind was quite occupied with how to comfort a certain blue-haired cutie crying her eyes out.

He figured that they must have been alerted by Hinata's scream when she saw him lying on the ground motionless. He called out to them.

"Mom … Dad."

Words from his conversation with his father earlier during the day echoed in his mind.

_If your enemies can't hurt you directly, they'll go through other means to hurt you. Do you want that?_

One look at his father's face caused him to look away in shame. There was no sign on Minato's face that conveyed disappointment or disapproval. Naruto's reaction purely resulted from his own guilt.

"Uh-oh, Mina-kun. Looks like you'll need to have a talk with your son again."

How his wife was able to pick up the subtleties in both him and his son's facial expressions and body postures baffled him. Secretly he believed that she must have some Yamanaka blood somewhere in her ancestry.

"Yes, I believe that would be the wisest course…."

After all, they had both been in love before, and Minato had similar circumstances dealing with the fear of his enemies using his love ones to threaten him. And here they were, married with child. No reason to believe that their son couldn't do the same.

"… Naru-kun, come! Things have changed a bit, so we need to revisit our conversation."

Minato had already turned around and was heading toward home, expecting Naruto to follow.

Naruto looked at the distancing back of his father and then looked down on his lap where the unconscious Hinata was resting her head.

"Dad, didn't you say I have to be back from my mission before tomorrow's team meeting with Kakashi-sensei?"

The twelve-year-old was hoping that his father would slow down or turn around.

_What's so important that he needs to do this now? Can't I just spend more time with my Hinata-chan?_

"This won't take long …"

Minata turned his head to wink at his son and chuckled heartily before he entered the Namikaze doors.

"… that's if you can separate yourself from your girlfriend some time before tomorrow."

Naruto blushed and then turned to look at his mother who was walking toward him.

"Go, Naru-kun. I'll take care of her. Besides, I need to have a little girl talk with her."

Even though Naruto wanted to know more about what kind of "girl talk," he figured that Hinata would tell him about it later anyway.

Leaving Hinata in capable hands, Naruto ran like any little boy would when they were asked to do something they really enjoy, and Naruto really enjoyed time spent talking with his father, even when the subject was rather serious.

After her husband and son returned to the compound, Kushina was finally alone with the fainted Hyuuga heiress. Her hands went through the seals for the chakra influsion jutsu and turned aglow with greenish chakra. Tapping them on both of Hinata's temples woke her up immediately.

"Well, I guess you're glad that I didn't teach Naru-kun that his hand doesn't need to be on the sternum for the chakra infusion to work, right Hinata-chan?"

Hinata blushed at Kushina's words and her knowing wink. Her index fingers were about to ….

"C'mon, Hinata-chan, get up and follow me to the flower garden. We girls got some time to ourselves before the boys join us again."

Hinata followed Kushina into the Namikaze compound and headed toward the eastern walls where a well-maintained flowerbed with blossoms of all types and colors captured her attention. Hinata was surprised that an accomplished combatant and medic kunoichi such as Kushina would have the interest or the time for gardening.

Those floral arrangement classes were Hinata's favorites at the Academy. She darted her eyes across the garden and rested her glaze on a cluster of lavender irises, her favorite.

"Hinata …"

The red-haired woman called out in a motherly tone, something which the twelve-year-old had terribly missed hearing since the day her own passed away.

"Hai, Kushina-san."

The formality she could understand, but the girl's apologetic tone puzzled Kushina. She dismissed it though, thinking that perhaps Hinata thought she was in trouble getting caught kissing Naruto. She decided it was time someone liberated from her shell.

"Oh, worry not. I kiss Naru-kun all the time, and he lived, didn't he?"

Hinata's pearl white face reflexively turned red.

"I … I …"

While her mind was trying to think of a graceful reply, her temperature rose, and her blush deepened.

Just when she was about to faint, she heard the words "Naruto is in danger" and immediately straightened up herself and assumed into the Jyuuken stance.

"Who? … Where?"

Hinata looked around for her crush, ready to strike down anyone daring to harm her Naruto-kun. Once she remembered that Naruto was with his father, who happened to be the Yondaime, the Yellow Flash of Konoha, she realized that she had been duped. She then heard snickering "Hehe" that sounded like her crush's mother.

This was not public knowledge, but Kushina was a closet prankster. If she wasn't married to the man holding the most important office in Konoha, there would have been no stopping her from being crowned the Prankster Queen of Konoha.

"I'll have to remember that next time you try to faint in my presence."

Hinata lowered her head again, her face deepened in shade, and she ….

"Don't you dare to faint, Hinata, or I won't tell you the secret to becoming my daughter-in-law."

Hearing those words only made Hinata's face redder, but just like Kushina had predicted, she did not faint.

Curiosity usually killed the cat, but in Hinata's case, it kept her from fainting.

"Good. How about I tell you how I met my husband?"

Still not trusting herself to speak, Hinata managed to nod her head. A sense of relief washed over her as she realized that at least for the duration of the story, she did not have to be the recipient of Kushina's teasing or be self-conscious of her own shyness or insecurities.

"It began 15 years ago. The Third Great Shinobi War was already underway. Death was everywhere. I was a Jounin at a distant village, which is now no more, the Hidden Village of Whirlpool. We wanted to remain neutral, but unfortunately Iwa thought our village was strategically located and wanted it for themselves before their enemies got the same idea. They had our village under siege. There was little chance of us surviving another month. Those were the circumstances we met in."

Hinata paid rapid attention to the story, searching for any clues as to how she could garner favor with her potential mother-in-law.

"Minato and his team arrived a week after we sent out our fastest messenger hawk to Konoha. He did take out a few of Iwa's fortresses and proved again why he was the feared Yellow Flash of Konoha; but in many ways, it was too little too late. There was only a few of us left, and the village folded eventually."

It wasn't exactly what Hinata was expecting. She was still racking her brains, trying to make a connection between Kushina's rather brief synopses of her village downfall and the _supposed_ secret to becoming her daughter-in-law.

"I'm sorry to hear that Kush-…"

"Just Kushina is fine. Actually, you want to know how this is related, don't you?"

Hinata looked down and nodded, both ashamed and surprised that she was so easily read.

Kushina wanted to tease the girl more, but she knew when not to overdo it, especially when Hinata was already struggling not to faint.

"You see, my Minato-kun was already famous when we met, and being the only survivor of the Namikaze clan, he had already received marriage proposals from all the single females from Konoha. I wouldn't be surprised if some of those came from married ones as well. I had to be assertive if I wanted him to notice me. But most importantly, I had to be as strong as I could be so that I would not be a liability."

Hinata looked down pensively, already forming some mental association to Kushina was trying to say.

"Your Naruto-kun hasn't made a name for himself yet. He has purposely downplayed his abilities and remained the class clown…. That secret, among many others you'll find out about him, you'll have to keep."

Hinata looked up into the redhead's eyes, knowing that Kushina was getting to the important part. Her eyes met a pair of serious green irises staring at her with an intensity that rivaled her own father's.

"I'm not sure how much longer he can keep his abilities secret. Some will gradually be introduced to the public. Others will most likely be discovered by others during distressing missions when he has to use them to save lives. Either way, one thing's for certain: He'll have ladies flocking to him, just like his father. If you want him, you need to be assertive. It may be cute at your age to be shy around him and faint when it's convenient too …"

Hinata looked away again, part of her self-esteem downtrodden.

She felt a pair of warm hands lovingly raised her chin back up to meet Kushina's eyes again. This time those same eyes were filled with warmth and tender affection. She heard her mentor continuing her speech; this time with a softened tone.

"… but in a few years, you'll mature into the beautiful, graceful, and powerful kunoichi that was once your mother. If your genes aren't enough, you also have your love for Naru-kun. Love … that alone ought to be enough to cause you to blossom into the companion you know he deserves."

The twelve-year-old timidly pushed her index fingers together. Sure, she loved her Naruto-kun, but being punched in the face by the brute reality of things….

"B-But … what if I can't? What if I'm not good enough?"

The redhead kunoichi winced a little at hearing that question and the blunt answer she would have to give in reply.

"Then you're not worthy of him."

Kushina could see tears forming in the girl's eyes. She squatted down to her eye level and wiped them off of her face.

"Hinata-chan, you are a very sweet girl, and I know that Naru-kun has a special place in your heart. But he is a very special boy. I'm not just saying that because I'm his mother either. You saw a glimpse today of what he's capable of. How many twelve-year-olds do you know that can survive the entirety of your Jyuuken strikes, especially with one to the heart?"

Even though the question was rhetorical, Hinata shook her head in response while she continued to listen attentively.

"And there's a whole lot more to him that you haven't seen and probably a few things that even he himself doesn't know about yet."

In Hinata's mind, Naruto's words echoed after Kushina's.

_I'm complicated in more ways than one…._

Kushina smiled when she saw the girl's eyes widen briefly. She continued.

"He needs someone strong to be his safe haven he can return to, he can love that will not become a liability to him…."

While the redhead woman was explaining things to her, the words of Naruto echoed even louder, eventually overcasting those of Kushina.

_I need someone to be my anchor, a safe haven for me to return to, and you can't be one if you don't know where you are and where you're heading. You can't be with me if don't have goals._

"I need to have goals…."

Hinata suddenly said, interrupting the now pleasantly surprised Kushina, who was unsure what brought about the girl's sudden assertiveness, proving that while she was there when the two kissed, she wasn't close enough to have heard their conversation.

"… can you help me to be the strong clan head that my mother knew I can be?"

…o.0.O.0.o…

"Relax, Naru-kun. Hinata is with your mom."

Naruto was not convinced, a look of dread clearly visible on his face.

"But Dad, they are going to have their 'girl' talk."

Minato shuttered on reflex.

"Trust me, son. Hinata will be okay, because she's a girl. But us guys, we need to stay far away from that."

Naruto tilted his head and scratched it while contemplating what his father meant by that.

"Just trust me for now. You'll understand when you get older."

Minato then saw his son's ears twitched a little as they tried to extend themselves.

"So, where are they now?"

Naruto lowered his head embarrassed that his father could read him like a book, but he managed to mumble.

"So Dad, what is it that you need to tell me?"

Minato chuckled a bit before answering.

"That talk I had with you earlier today about hiding your true abilities. Do you think I meant that you can't fall in love?"

Naruto's eyes widen in shock.

"Dad, how did you …? Did mom …?"

"Yep! Anyway, it doesn't mean that. You just have to do it differently than other people" – to this Naruto scratched his head – "You just have to be absolutely sure that she's the right person for you before you tell her your secret."

Naruto scrunched his face. This wayward reasoning went against what he was taught as a child.

"But Dad, isn't trust the basis for any meaningful relationship?"

"It is, but in your case, knowing your secrets also meant bearing that torture stake with you …"

… Minato was pointing to Naruto's stomach …

"… and you can't do that to Hinata just because she loves you. You also must be absolutely sure that YOU love her and that you are willing to be responsible for her."

Naruto nodded his head in understanding. His face mirrored the seriousness of his father's.

"So, I guess me telling Hinata about my seal would be like me asking for her hand in marriage, huh?"

Minato chuckled softly in effort to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

Naruto proceeded to rise slowly from his sitting position. He had a lot of thinking to do, but he was glad that his parents had interrupted their kissing before it got too far. On a second thought ….

_Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't interrupted._

With his back now turned toward his father, a faint blush appeared on his face.

It was not unheard of for ninja to marry young. Ninja life was hard and short. Those fortunate enough to find love were considered foolish if they let opportunities slipped by.

"If there's nothing else, I'd better get going and find this Jiraiya person."

Naruto was already on his way out of the dojo when he heard a voice calling behind him.

"Just be sure to activate your Henge Seal."

Inside the dojo, a mischievous smile formed on Minato's face.

_Sensei is going to be so surprised by your visit._

…o.0.O.0.o…

**A/N: **Title of this chapter is a direct borrow again, from the incomparable Mr. Shakespeare: "As You Like It."

Thanks to those who reviewed. \/ Keep them coming :D \/


	6. The Untamed Shrew

**Naruto: A Different Beginning**

**By Smithjohn2020**

**Chapter 6: The Untamed Shrew**

Hi. I know this is short, but Life's been crazy busy for me right now. I hope it's short but enjoyable :D

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything except the words below and the original ideas they convey.

Unbeta'ed. Plot unrelated to the title borrowed.

…o.0.O.0.o…

**Last Chapter: ** Minato and Kushina ran outside when they'd heard a girl's cry of despair, only to interrupt their son making out with Hinata. Minato took Naruto away and had another talk with him, telling him it was okay to fall in love, and that he could only burden his love interest with his secret only when he was certain that she was the one. Kushina gave Hinata a reality check, letting the girl know that if she wanted to be with her son, she must grow strong enough to be of support to him. Naruto, with his seal hinged as Kal-El, departed to find Jiraiya.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Sitting in solitude of the family dojo, Minato waited until he could no longer detect his son's chakra signature and cast a privacy jutsu. Ever since Naruto had discovered his super hearing ability, it had been really difficult to keep things confidential around him.

Seven years ago, he had sent Kakashi out to find Jiraiya, who in turn was supposed to find Tsunade, in hopes that their return would help to stabilize a conspiracy breeding ground that was known as Konohagakure, with factors that included the patriotism that Danzou fronted to conceal the self-serving activities of his Root ANBU and the note about the Mizukage found on the desk of the head of the most power hungry clan with an unchecked inferiority complex.

Kakashi had tried his best for two weeks, but had returned home empty handed. Minato didn't blame him; he knew elusive his sensei could be, especially if he didn't want to be found. Plus Minato wouldn't have put it over him to bribe Kakashi with the newest of the Icha Icha series.

Three years later, the Uchihas' secret clan meetings and collaborations with Mizukage finally culminated in a coup d'etat. Fortunately, their mutinous plot was uncovered and reported to Minato by one of their own, Itachi, another loyal ANBU captain, successor to Kakashi.

The thirteen-year-old captain had buried his own feelings for his family and relatives to serve the greater good of Konoha. And for those reasons, he had requested that should a mission be required to terminate such treasonous clan that he'd be the one chosen to carry it through.

It didn't happen. It couldn't happen. Minato would have no part of it. If it had to come to that, he himself would have carried out such a mission and would never have subjected anyone else to bear such painful burden of choosing one's village over one's family, though when one put on that hitai-ate, one already had.

Instead, Minato's solution was that any adult Uchiha, which also included young ninjas who would be otherwise considered children had they been civilians, and anyone with an activated Sharingan were arrested and kept in the ANBU cells until an irrevocable seal that permanently suppressed chakra could be applied to them. Any who were children or otherwise too young to understand what was happening had been given to the Konoha ward, originally set aside for the orphanage.

But, to pull off anything short of a clan massacre, especially in light of the uncovered mutinous plot, Minato would need consent from the village advisors, of which unfortunately Danzou was one. He would only relent if Minato'd agreed to let Root have those children. Against his better judgment, but then it was either that or a bloody alternative, Minato gave in to the war hawk's demands.

Would it have made a difference had either or both of the two loyal Sannins been in the village during that turmulous time?

Probably not, at least that was what Minato had been using to console himself with. No matter what, he would not blame Kakashi, lest he led him down the tragic path of his father the White Fang.

Now another situation arose where he could not afford yet another absence of either Tsunade or Jiraiya. This time a "failure to retrieve" was not an option; thus, he sent his very best - his one and only.

Once the privacy jutsu had been casted, he turned his attention to his ANBU captain hidden behind a shadow genjutsu.

"Weasel, report!"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Out from the shadow cast in the corner of the room emerged a moving darkness that gradually shaped into Itachi, perhaps one of the few who could avoid Naruto's detection, if Naruto's super senses had been distracted enough.

"Your suspicions had been right, I'm afraid."

Minato narrowed his eyes slightly as he contemplatively waited for Itachi to continue.

"Iwa and Kiri have been sending their ninja to pose as civilian merchants and infiltrate our borders. We don't know how many they've sent, but so far we've only managed to capture 2 from Iwa and 3 from Kiri. Ibiki have been trying to break them, but he hasn't been successful."

Minato nodded in acknowledgment and sighed.

_Tschikage and Mizukaga, what are you two up to? _"Very well. Looks like we have another war brewing in the horizon. I'd like you to double the patrol on our borders and report again next week."

A "Hai" later, the loyal Uchiha melted into the shadows.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Apart from the name and looks, Naruto knew little else of the person he was sent to retrieve.

Sure, Naruto had heard stories from his dad about this man and seen plenty of pictures with him in it, but merely knowing a person's appearance did not constitute, at least to Naruto, knowing _about_ someone, which was most unforgiving, since this person was supposed to be his godfather.

_Jiraiya, huh? I'll teach him why he should not miss all those important days of my life. Hell, Dad said that he had only seen me once, and that was right after that whatever was sealed inside me._

From the top of the Hokage Monument, standing on top of his father's head actually, Naruto in his henged Kal-El form made a cross hand seal and instantly four Kage Bunshins poofed into existence beside him. He nodded to them and off they go, superspeeding in different directions covering the Five Elemental Nations. He himself chose to stay in the Fire Country, searching the vast land outside of his beloved village.

Perhaps that was why Naruto felt the need to find Jiraiya fast.

... Or was it because he wanted to get back to seeing his favorite blue-haired stutterer?

... Or was it because he had sensed a hint of worry in his father's voice when issuing this mission?

_Nah, he's a Sannin and my dad's sensei. There's no way he could be in any trouble now. He probably got lost on the road of life. Huh?_

Naruto didn't understand why suddenly his thoughts shifted to Kakashi-sensei and his two other teammates. He shrugged away an uneasy feeling as he realized that Team 7, despite not having his, a baka-pretender's, presence was a still a formidable team.

_Still, it wouldn't hurt to speed this up.  
_  
He sent a telekinetic pulse to the rest of his clones to inform them of his concerns. This was perhaps one of the very few occasions that he saw any advantage to having something unknown sealed in his navel.

For some reason, the seal or the thing sealed within had the ability to alter any and all Naruto's jutsus, and in the case of Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, his kage bunshin variations were able to communicate thoughts without having to dispel any of his clones.

Not all alterations ended up enhancing the jutsu's intended outcome. Some even made the jutsu unstable, unusable, or uncontrollable. But the biggest problem for Naruto was when learning a new jutsu, not knowing how its outcome would be altered.

Many times that means he could only learn new jutsus in private or from a handful of people who knew about his special condition. And when someone not knowing his special condition tried to teach him a jutsu or if he had to perform it in front of a group, like in a classroom setting, he had to pretend to be the dense class clown that people associated him with.

Perhaps that was the real reason he chose to rely more on his super abilities – once he'd discovered that he had them – than to pay heed to his father and mother's urges to study, practice or train in any jutsus.

Once his clones received his telekinetic message, they doubled what was already a speed unfathomable to human minds.

Already the clones had entered their assigned Elemental Nation and its hidden village, heading toward the target's favorite hot spots, namely brothels, bath houses, and hot springs.

Doing a quick surveillance scan, the clone in Suna finished the scan first and "sent" his report to the boss and his clone comrads. Apart from a few intriguing custom differences and ninja quirks and habits unique to their dry climates and temperature extremes, there was nothing remarkable to report.

The clone wanted to lighten up the mood by reporting about a funny boy playing with dolls and walking around with a thick face paint, but decided against it, since he wasn't sure if it would be convenient for his clone comrades to laugh. He himself was already having a hard time controlling his own laughter from drawing attention or alerting the populous that some foreign ninja had breached their village security and was roaming about freely in the street.

Picking up a female scent heading toward his hiding place, he readied himself to speed away before he was discovered, but was surprised to find her scent disappearing from where it had been and instantaneously reappearing right before him, and literally as if she had stepped out of a rift in the thin air.

At the very sight of her - or was it because of her proximity, the Naruto clone wasn't sure - he felt his strength leaving him, and a part of him, namely his naval where his seal resided, aching in excruciating pain.

Pain. This was a feeling that he had never felt before, and he quite frankly did not know how to even describe the agonizing sensation or how to cope with its throbbing.

He wanted to clutch his naval, but common sense told him it would be foolish to act on the urgings of his reflexes and give away any appearance of weakness, especially in front of someone of another village.

That did not mean the blonde four-ponytailed kunoichi, whom the clone judged was a year or two older than boss, did not pick up on his discomfort or trepidation.

"Who are you and what are you doing here in Suna?"

Her tone told Naruto that she was really confident in her ability to deal with him, if needed. Silently the Naruto clone was glad that his boss had activated the disguise seal before cloning them; otherwise, his normal appearance would be too much of a giveaway to his identity as the son of the famed Yellow Flash.

Quickly he turned and ran to no particular direction. Anywhere. Anywhere away from her would suffice. He wasn't sure why he couldn't use any of his superpowers since she appeared, but on his own he was still moving at a very fast pace.

But somehow she was faster.

Appearing in front of him was a sliver of pocket leading to seemingly another dimentional plane, and out of it popped out a foot, kicking him right in the shin.

Pain. More pain.

_What da heck!?_

And then the offending foot disappeared, and the Naruto clone felt some of his superpowers returning to him. He was too stunned to even notice another sliver of opening appearing in front of him, directly in front of his abdomen. Out of it popped out a fist that socked him in the gut ...

"Mph!"

... knocking the wind out of him.

The Naruto clone dropped to the ground and rolled away from the ambush. He stood cautiously and had his arms outstretched in anticipation of another sudden attack. He was trying his best to assume a defensive taijutsu stance, one that he had never bothered practicing.

_I swear, boss will be practicing all his taijutsu stances from now on. He'll be paying more attention to jutsus. He will not slack off during training and ..._

Pow!

He was punched squarely in the face by a fist that materialized in the same fashion as before. The punch knocked him off his feet. This time, the fist did not disappear, and Naruto clone saw the rest of the blonde kunoichi stepping out of that sliced opening in the very thin air.

"Answer me when I talk to you, boy! Whose village do you belong to, and what's that S sign on your hitai-ate?"

She vehemently asked, never liking how she had been ignored by her own father the Kazekage, she certainly wasn't going to take the same crap from anyone else. Not from her two brothers. And certainly not from this gaki!

She noticed the boy slowly getting up and wiping off the damage from his mouth. She smirked seeing him mouthing "Blood" in disbelief.

"What? You've never seen blood before? Ha! What kinda of ninja are you?"

The real Naruto certainly had seen blood before - Kami knew how often Kushina had accidentally cut her finger in the kitchen - but never his own, hence his current state of disbelief.

He stepped away with genuine fear in his eyes. He tried to transmit messages and warnings to the other Narutos telekinetically to watch out for anything unusual, but somehow the kunoichi's presence had canceled the alteration that the sealed THING made to his kage bunshins.

He wanted to use other jutsus but the pain from his seal was too great to ignore, and was disrupting his chakra flow.

_Whoever or WHATever she is, boss needs to know. I guess he'll just have to get this once I'm dispelled._

Quickly he formulated a plan. He knew he needed to get as much information from her.

"I'm a nobody. I wasn't even given a name at birth. I'm just a tool hired to do another's bidding..."

... all of which was still true, of his cloned persona anyway.

"... I would ask you not to kill me, but since we both know that you'd have to, at least tell me who you are and how you're able to appear out of thin air like that."

She raised one of her eyebrows and smirked at the boy. No one, not even her mentally-imbalanced, bloodthirsty brother Gaara had the guts to deny answering her question or ask another in exchange.

_He's certainly interesting. Too bad I have to kill him._

"And _why_ should I tell you anything?"

The Naruto clone saw her - was that coquetish? - smirk on her face a hint of playfulness in her tone. He wasn't sure what to make of this, but he figured it must be another weird ninja quirk, like Kakashi-sensei's habitual tardiness and overt porn reading.

"I'm going to die anyway. The least you could do is to let me know by whose hand I died."

The blonde girl put her hands on her hips.

"Very well. My name is Temari no Sabuku. That technique is unique to me because I have a piece of a fallen star sealed inside me."

_Fallen star!? The meteorites that Dad was telling me about? Is that what's weakening me, or is it actually weakening the THING sealed inside me?_

He pretended to coward before her, holding up his hands as if they could shield him from his end, and waited for the blonde to deal the death blow.

"Thank you."

He saw her right index finger making a scratching motion in the air, and small slit of opening appeared. She reached her arm into it and grabbed out a folded-up battle fan that stood slightly taller than she. The portion of her arm that reached in had disappeared for that brief duration - a sight Naruto would not be forgetting anytime soon.

With one smooth motion, Temari opened her fan and sent a windblast toward the boy, slicing through anything in its path.

Poof!

"Kuzo! A Kage Bunshin?"

…o.0.O.0.o…

The rest of the clones and the original briefly stopped what they were doing as they received memory from the dispersed clone.

_What!? Impossible! Someone has been experimenting with the meteorites, even sealing them into ninja? Did others do the same?_

This new information troubled Naruto, who really wanted to discuss this with his father. He immediately signaled his kage bunshins to speed up their searches.

_I wonder what weirdo I'll encounter next in this mission._

They continued their hunt for Jiraiya with a renewed fervor, hoping to find this white-haired pervert soon before encountering another incident again.

…o.0.O.0.o…

**A/N:**This is not a harem. It'll strictly be Naruto and Hinata. The Temari attraction was to point out that there's a thin line between love and hate, friend and foe. Nothing more.

Title of this chapter is derived from Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." I don't know why it's Shakespeare again, and honestly it wasn't deliberate on my part. But thinking up appropriate chapter titles with names derived from famous literary works isn't _that _easy to do.

Special thanks to hakanamu for helping translating some jutsus into Japanese in early chapters, which I've updated accordingly. His contributions are in the Reviews.

Thanks to those who reviewed. \/ Keep them coming :D \/


End file.
